Honesty is the best policy, especially when you have already been caught red — or is it blue in this case? — handed.
Connecticut’s Regional 14 school district of Bethlehem and Woodbury owned up to its mistakes this week. The school district came under fire after a student, Andrew Lampart, discovered the school’s biased web filtering. When researching gun control for a class debate, Lampart was blocked from conservative websites, but noticed he had no troubling accessing liberal sites.
A concerned Lampart brought the matter to the district’s superintendent and the school board as well. A document posted on the district’s website on June 20th states “while it is obviously critical to block specific categories of websites as required by law (e.g., pornography, etc.), the blocking of otherwise appropriate websites, regardless of political or religious viewpoints, is WRONG.”
The document also states, “The board of Education appreciates that this situation was brought to our attention by a student.”
An earlier document posted by the district explained that liberal websites were filtered into the “not rated” category and unblocked. Conservative sites were placed in the “political/advocacy” category. This category is only accessible to teachers and staff. The district also stated that it is considering switching web filtering providers.
Websites Lampart couldn’t access included the National Rifle Association, The National Right to Life, Paul Ryan for Congress, the Vatican, Town Hall, among others.
The issue has received much press from both local and national outlets. Famed actor and folk hero Chuck Norris even wrote about it in a scathing column on Townhall.com.
