Parents came to the Huntley-Algonquin School District 158 board meeting Thursday to express frustration after they say their children were able to access pornographic images on school district-issued computer devices.
All students in grades kindergarten through seventh have been given either a tablet or laptop this school year as part of the district's 1:1 learning initiative.
Jennifer Kinney, a parent of a second grader, said she discovered her daughter's tablet had access to pornography after it was brought to her attention last month by two other families that 'there was some risk, and something going on with the Internet filter not working.'
'I saw completely inappropriate, obscene images, and then some,' Kinney told the school board.
When Kinney went to a tablet orientation night at her daughter's school, she did the same Internet searches she did at home and was still able to access pornography on the tablet.
'It was over a week ago when my concerns really became escalated,' she said. 'We are supporters of tablets, but we feel for us the current way it's set up is not appropriate.'
Doug Watkins, who has grandchildren in the school district, said he owns and operates an Internet service provider and understands the problems the school district's IT department is having.
'But it's time to step it up and get them up to date,' Watkins said. 'There are a dozen ways to solve the problems you're having with the content that moves through the schools and is immediately accessible on children's computers. ... What due diligence did you do before selecting this vendor? It shouldn't take weeks, but days to solve this problem.'
In an interview before the meeting with ABC 7 Chicago, Superintendent John Burkey said the devices carry the Lightspeed Systems firewall -- typically more restrictive than parental controls on most home computers -- but acknowledged pornography can still get through.
'We have tried very hard to make it very safe for kids, and we are aware that there are some things that have happened over the last several weeks,' Burkey said. 'Ninety percent of the time, if not more, it works very well. It's not a consistent flaw, but we have taken every immediate step we can to try to ensure the safety within the realm of never being able to 100 percent guarantee everything. We want to come as close as we can.'
The school board agenda did not list the pornography issue as a discussion item, and board members did not directly respond to those who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting.
For more on this story, check back later to dailyherald.com and read Friday's Daily Herald.
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