Filtering system planned for school Internet users

As Clark County School District technicians scramble to install Internet access at schools all over the district, officials are demonstrating a filtering system that keeps pornographic websites out of student reach.

The system, software called Smartfilter, is installed in the district's central server and automatically blocks access to websites dedicated to a variety of subjects, including sex, criminal skills, drugs, and hate speech, officials said. A student sitting at a computer anywhere in the district who tries to access sites relating to those subjects most likely will receive an "access denied" message.

"We want to give them the opportunity to have access to Internet sites, but we want them to be appropriate sites," said Bruce Daley, a district technology specialist. "If you compared it to a field trip, we wouldn't want them to be playing in the street."

The Clark County School Board on Thursday without discussion tentatively added a section to its Internet and e-mail policies specifically stating that, "The district will make every reasonable attempt to limit access to inappropriate material by using an Internet filtering system, providing teacher training, and encouraging personal responsibility."

"This is simply the paperwork catching up with the process," said Walt Rulffes, the district's chief business and financial officer.

District officials have been installing Smartfilter as they have installed Internet wiring in schools, which began just a few years ago, said Dan Wray, another district technology specialist.

About 65 of the district's 227 schools now have Internet access in about 3,800 computer stations, Wray said. Wray hopes to have all schools hooked up to the Internet by the end of next summer.

Several pupils demonstrated their cyber-savvy on Thursday at Hoggard Elementary School, a science and math magnet school.

"I'm a computer nerd -- 40 words per minute," professed Hoggard fifth grader Brandon Summers. Brandon said his parents didn't let him surf the net at home unsupervised, "so I don't do something bad."

The district's filter is not 100 percent unbeatable, district teachers -- and students -- say.

"Internet sites pop up by the second that the filters don't filter out," said Jose Delfin, who trains teachers at Durango High School how to use and teach with computers. "But this works pretty well."

One student who was lingering at Durango after school Thursday said he had accessed pornographic sites, and a recipe for moonshine, several times at school.

"It's not impossible," he said. "It's just a little net you have to break through."

Still, Hoggard computer teacher Judy Bahorski said that under her watchful eye her elementary students rarely search out or stumble onto inappropriate material.

"Kids are going to try to go where they shouldn't," Boharski said. "But with the filter, they can't get in."

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