Portal to porn? Petaluma school iPad debate heats up

Tensions over the main Petaluma school district’s iPad program rose to the surface Tuesday as several parents voiced concerns to education officials about obscene content accessible on the devices, and some, including two students, spoke in favor of the technology.

The Petaluma City Schools District Board listened to public comment on the district’s $4 million bond-funded program to give each of the 7,500 students an iPad to be used for schoolwork and homework. After the program launched in August, several parents complained that the Internet filter on the iPads did not block every search for sexually explicit and violent content.

The district said it has an Internet filter in place, but acknowledged that it does not catch every search term. As holes in the filter are discovered, administrators have worked to patch them, the district has said.

At the board’s meeting Tuesday, Sarah Bauer, the parent of a Penngrove Elementary student, said the potential to access offensive content on the school-issued iPads was harmful to children. She called for an end to the iPad program until the filter issues are resolved.

“The filter is not working properly. It is not protecting our children,” she said. “If the filter cannot be fixed, the iPads need to be removed. Please take the iPads out of our children’s hands.”

Two high school students spoke about the benefits of the iPad program and argued that the district’s Internet filter is actually too restrictive and blocks access to material that they need for research. Sarah Stypa, a Casa Grande High School student who identified herself as a rape survivor, said that she is working on a senior project about rape culture and was frustrated after finding out that her iPad blocks searches relating to the subject.

“I’m extremely offended at the school’s filter,” she said. “I don’t see the point in filtering the inevitable. We are covering up the problem instead of addressing it. Sheltering students from such words is harming their education rather than benefiting them.”

The speakers addressed the school board during the public comment period. The board was not scheduled to discuss the iPad program, and board members are not allowed to publicly discuss topics that are not on the agenda.

Monty Sullivan, the father of four district students, demonstrated for the board using his son’s school-issued iPad what he said was easy access to sexually explicit images. Board President Michael Baddeley asked Sullivan at one point to tone down his descriptive language because children were in the room, and told him to refrain from displaying the images on the iPad, citing a board policy against using technology during public comments.

Sullivan said that the district should address what he called the “one-size-fits-all” Internet filter, and suggested that perhaps different levels of filtering would be appropriate for different grade levels.

“There’s no way to block the bad stuff and keep the good stuff,” he said. “The district’s response is to blame the parents. That’s not fair. To blame the parents is to say we’re not doing our job.”

Superintendent Gary Callahan said on Wednesday that the district will continue to fine tune its Internet filter and find a balance so that it is not so restrictive as to block information useful to students while also trying to protect them from harmful content. He rejected some parents’ calls to suspend the iPad program.

“We’re trying to strike a balance of what’s an appropriate level of filtering,” he said in an interview. “We’ll find that balance. We need to make sure that our kids are safe, but also make sure that kids have access to the devices so they can make use of them.”

High school student Navi Sidhu, addressing the school board Tuesday, said that high school students should be given a certain amount of trust. He said that restricting access to information online essentially makes the iPad technology obsolete.

“Blocking the Internet is a band aid on a deeper wound,” he said. “Students feel they need the trust they deserve.”

Kiri Baily, the parent of Cherry Valley elementary students, said that the iPad program has enriched her children’s education.

“The addition of technology has given them the opportunity to more fully engage with the modern world,” she said.

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)