Written by Alex Kamnitzer|

Ever had the need to simply copy and paste a picture for a project only to get stopped because you can’t right click? Have you ever used a site at Morgan only to return hours or moments later to find it blocked? Although there are some blocks that are necessary by school and federal law, some of these blocks are a little ridiculous. The legality of the situation lies within the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). According to CIPA, schools are required to block students from anything obscene (which is defined as anything offensive to morals), child pornography, and material that could be harmful to minors.

Yet, the ability to right click just doesn’t fit under any of these requirements. There are many resources that would be helpful to students and teachers that are not harmful to minors. Storify, for example, collects information from various websites and brings them to one place so that people are able to create a writing piece. However, since it does collect information from social networking sites, it is blocked at The Morgan School. YouTube has many educational videos. Students and teachers can find videos that will enhance learning. However, the site is blocked at Morgan. To use an educational YouTube video, students and teachers must download at home, or they must work around the blocks.

Why not allow students to right click? Why not allow teachers and students access to YouTube? Block pornography and obscene material, but allow access to other sites. Let’s find out what students and teachers would do with open access to the Internet.