Most students at Chamblee High School have been using district-provided Google Chromebooks in school for years. As such, many are well aware of the meaning of a black screen with a red bar across the middle before they even read the words typed near the bottom: “[insert website] is not available. This website has been blocked.” These blocked websites are restricted on all DeKalb County school computers, affecting all who use these devices across the county.

Many of the websites DeKalb County blocks are websites that can be distractions for students trying to focus in class. This includes streaming, gaming, and social media websites. However, sometimes DeKalb blocks websites students actually find useful for school, one of these being Gmail.

“I think Gmail shouldn’t be blocked. All of my college stuff is on my personal account, which I’m not allowed to access,” said Sarai McClinton (‘26).

Gmail is not the only potentially productive website that’s inaccessible to all DeKalb students on Chromebooks.

“Remind is a school platform that some teachers use to notify students about assignments, but it’s blocked,” said Lauren Madison (‘27). “Ms. Nguyen’s been trying for the past year and a half to get it unblocked. I feel like the petitioning system is not that effective.”

Sometimes websites that DeKalb County Chromebooks can’t access are not just useful, but necessary to the functioning of classes at CHS.

“At one point, there was something on College Board that was blocked, where it stopped me from doing my AP Seminar work,” said Lamson Nguyen (‘27).

While some students argue that only a few select sites should be unblocked, others argue that there shouldn’t even be a blocking system in place at all.

“If you get caught on the website that you shouldn’t be using, that’s your fault, and you’re guilty for that, and you should be held accountable,” said Isobel Briseno (‘27). “Don’t punish all of us for one thing that somebody does.” 

The school district certainly has goals that it seeks to advance by having these blocks in place, and many students understand this; however, whether or not DeKalb is effectively achieving these goals is up for debate.

“[DeKalb County] aims to encourage efficiency and promote focusing on your work as opposed to playing games on sites like Coolmath,” said Addison Byrd (‘27). “I don’t think it’s working because everyone I know knows a workaround.”

However, some teachers believe that what DeKalb County is doing is working, and that the system should be kept the way it is.

“One of the main problems with schools and increasing technology is that even if you have the best websites, digital distractions are present,” said Ms. Leila Warren. “If I were a district leader, I would be trying to limit digital distractions during school.”

Overall, the blocking system has had a huge impact for students and teachers.

“I think that DeKalb is doing their best,” said McClinton, “but they are not doing it in a way that’s beneficial for the average student, and it hinders our academic abilities.”