Havre schools rethinking Internet filters

The Internet may be changing schools all over the world every year, but in Havre the schools are changing the Internet, by blocking more and more of it every year. And many Havre High School students think the Internet blocking has gone too far.

At Tuesday night's Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting, Havre High students Mason Case and Courtlan Vukasin expressed their concerns to the board and shared a statement they had prepared, with a petition signed by dozens of their fellow students.

"Doing research has gotten harder and harder and harder over the years," Case said. "This year is the hardest yet. We're not able to access the things we need. It is hurting my education, I feel."

He told the board that he was recently trying to do research for an assignment on Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have A Dream" speech, but he ran into difficulty when websites on the subject were blocked.

Vukasin described how the system currently works, with a form to fill out with information about why the student needs to access the website and an email address at which the administrator can reach the student.

"I've filled it out every time," Vukasin said. "I haven't gotten one response."

The two students had a few suggestions for the board that they had come up with that they thought could ease some of the restrictions while still protecting students from truly objectionable material, including a filter that discriminates based on the student's grade level, so seniors could access websites that might be deemed inappropriate for freshmen.

Superintendent Andy Carlson told the students, and the board, that no promises could be made and no immediate action taken, though he too acknowledged the issue. According to Carlson, a website about which he had tried to email the trustees, the official website of Dr. Steven Edwards who has been helping Havre Public Schools with recent curriculum changes, was blocked by the school's system because it had a blog on it.

"There is a need for us to look at how we are using technology," Carlson said. "The concern goes beyond these two young men. It's a matter for our staff too. I know our staff are frustrated at times by not having access to educational or research materials."

Though protections need to be preserved, Carlson said, not only from the obviously objectionable material that fills the Internet, but also to preserve funding from the Federal Communications Commission's Education Rate, or E-rate, program.

The E-rate program takes money from the Universal Service fees that are applied to any bill on an inter-state communication system, like phone bills, and uses the money to help allow schools to afford the technology they need.

Carlson said that without E-rate funding, the school would not only be without the advanced fiber optic system they have today, but they would hardly have any communications technology at all.

The superintendent recommended that the board set up a committee to look at the issue and come up with a recommended action.

At his suggestion, the board voted unanimously to set up a committee — made up of trustees, faculty, district technology staff and student representation — to look at the situation and try to come up with a solution that would work for all parties to recommend to the board in two or three months.