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Jim Hill student urges JPS to fix web filters after survey shows blocked class resources
Summary
Student board representative Emily Wilson told the Jackson Public School District board that a student survey found many class resources are blocked on district devices and recommended clearer unblock procedures and classroom-friendly filtering tools; the superintendent said the district uses iBoss and will investigate.
Emily Wilson, the Jim Hill High School student board representative, told the Jackson Public School District board that district web filters are blocking sites students need to complete class assignments and asked the board to revise procedures and tools to fix the problem.
"The pressing issue here is that these policies limit the accessibility that us students have to access the internet and resources that we need in the school," Wilson said as she presented survey findings collected from Jim Hill students.
Wilson told the board 62.4% of responding students said they "very often" encounter blocked websites when completing schoolwork, and 81.2% reported being blocked from a resource specifically assigned or recommended by a teacher. She said blocked material includes news/informational outlets (32.3%), research databases and educational videos (each 26.5%), and scholarly journals (14.7%). In student comments Wilson read aloud, one senior said blocks forced them to complete work after 1 a.m.; another IB student said required sources for an internal assessment were inaccessible.
Wilson proposed several fixes: a clear, easy-to-find web-filter unblock procedure; classroom-focused filtering tools that evaluate page content rather than URLs (she named tools such as "Blockcy," "Hapra," and "Gaggle web filter"); and district-provided, vetted research databases or library subscriptions available through the district portal (Wilson said she did not find appropriate databases in the district's Clever account).
Board members asked whether blocked sites were teacher-assigned or the result of student searches. Wilson said teacher-assigned links and routine class resources were often inaccessible on Chromebooks while connected to the JPS network. She also said she had tried to locate an unblock process in the technology handbook and could not find instructions or a link.
Superintendent Dr. Green responded that the district currently uses a filtering service (referred to in the meeting as iBoss) and that the administration would review the unblock process and access over the summer. "We will get that fixed post haste," Dr. Green told the board, adding district staff and teachers will need to coordinate to identify commonly used resources and ensure those links are accessible in school.
Several board members praised Wilson's presentation and suggested follow-up work by the district. One board member suggested Emily could lead a task force to study classroom-friendly filtering and recommend concrete vendor or procedural changes; board members also asked the technology office to publish a clear unblock process and to report back on whether teacher-assigned materials are being blocked.
The board did not vote on a policy change during the meeting; members directed administration to investigate vendor settings, make the unblock process discoverable, and return with recommendations.
