Concern increased after third-graders gained access to a pornographic Web site using a school computer terminal
By: Brian Shappell
The Cranbury School administration is stepping up its efforts to police student Internet use at the school.
Chief School Administrator Robert Bartoletti and school technologist Mark Nestor addressed concerns of the Board of Education and some parents regarding what students have access to on the Internet. Both Dr. Bartoletti and Mr. Nestor discussed monitoring the students’ Internet use and the use of filtering systems.
"It’s an ongoing issue, not just in Cranbury, but throughout the country," said Dr. Bartoletti. "We’re continually looking to control access to the Internet."
The issue of monitoring what Internet sites students are using has drawn increased attention in recent weeks after members of a third-grade class gained access to a pornographic Web site using a school computer terminal. Since then, the school administration has instructed teachers to be more alert to the sites students are visiting on the Internet use and have halted all unsupervised, recess-time use of the Internet by students.
In addition, the school board’s Policy Committee will meet Feb. 22 to continue discussing ways to keep children protected when using the Internet in school.
"I was very pleased to see how responsive the school has been," said Beth Brennan, a parent of a Cranbury School student. "They seem very interested in keeping the Internet safe at the school."
The school is reviewing two new filter options using I-Gear and Internet Safari.
I-Gear would cost the school about $1,000 and includes allowing the school to specify topics or sites that need to be blocked from student access. Mr. Nestor said it is a more extensive and flexible program than the program now used at the school, Surfwatch, provided by Comcast, the school’s Internet provider.
Mr. Nestor also said he would likely test the I-Gear program for the remainder of the school year prior to suggesting its widespread use for the 2001-2002 year.
The Internet Safari option, which would cost between $600 and $900, is a new filter program developed for grade-school students. It establishes a large list of sites that can be used, rather than blocking sites that cannot be used. Mr. Nestor said, if chosen, this filter could be installed on all computers used by students in kindergarten through fifth grade during this year.
"It looks like something that would accomplish all our goals for K-5 in a quick and easy package," Mr. Nestor said. "It is definitely an option geared toward a younger audience."
Mr. Nestor also said the Surfwatch program has worked very well for the school, aside from a couple of glitches, like the third-grade incident last month. He said sometimes things slip through the cracks. "There hasn’t been a system that’s been developed that’s 100 percent effective," Mr. Nestor said. "This is the best one, short of pulling the plug. We don’t want to do that."
He said there is a possibility the school could continue to use the Surfwatch program for the upper grades while aided by adding the Internet Safari filter for the lower grades.
While Ms. Brennan said she is impressed with the school efforts, she said relying on filtering programs is only part of the issue.
"I think the most important thing is we need to be aware in the home and in school of limitations of Internet provider’s parental controls and filter software and not allow them to be a substitute for supervision," Ms. Brennan said. "Students are curious and, as we can see, the filtering software is not foolproof."
Mr. Nestor also said he has the ability to monitor what sites are being used at any time, on any computer in the building, from his office. And he also can print a log of all internet sites accessed on school computers.