Cabarrus county schools blocking access to LGBTQ sites?
According to Nathan (curly, not blond):
Synopsis: the [Cabarrus County] public school system’s firewall is blocking LGBTQ sites without blocking other sites that I would consider parallel (say, http://www.operationsaveamerica.org).
It’s not that the sites are thought of as related to sex (vs. sexuality), or something graphic. “The reason these sites are denied is as follows: ‘Gay, Lesbian, or bisexual interest.'”
I really like the way Nathan and his partners in crime are handling this:
Presently Savannah and I are trying to resolve the issue through normal channels by talking with people involved in the school district. […] We ask that unless attempts through these normal channels have failed that you withhold your reactions toward the press and government. We feel that unnecessarily involving lots of people will create a situation where they become defensive rather than working with us toward a solution to the problem.
Nathan also includes a call for students in the school system to test, test, test. Find the limits of the ban. The comments of the entry detail more experimentation results.
According to the NC Firewall community Nathan has set up:
We are near certain now that these websites are being blocked intentionally. We are proceeding at this point assuming that to be a fact. We feel like we have it in as many words from the Chief Technology Officer.
The school system has, of course, been blocking sex-related sites for years, which led to the typical problems searching for health-related information, but nothing on this discriminatory a scale.
Related Incidents
In 2001, a student (not in Cabarrus County) protested against her school blocking the Planned Parenthood website, but not the Christian Coalition. (Read Salon.com’s “Censorship High“.)
Also in 2001, Danny Silverman engaged in what he called “nonviolent sit-in on the school Internet“.
[tag]cabarrus county schools, north carolina, cabarrus county, firewalls, censorship, education, ncfirewall[/tag]
