Dorothy Crinshaw of the Indianapolis Public Schools was able to return a phone call made last week to her office before Thanksgiving regarding IPS censoring Pagan/Wiccan and Atheistic content and was able to answer a few questions.
When asked if she could verify whether or not IPS was censoring Pagan/Wiccan (alternative spirituality) websites, Dorothy stated that she was unaware of that being the case and asked for an example of a website so that she could look for herself. Upon searching for Wicca on her IPS computer, she found that she was able to not only obtain results but click on any of the results and open the pages.
Dorothy clarified that what might block that type of site would not be the religion classification but most likely if it had a blog or social networking option of some sort. She went on to say that if there was a Pagan/Wiccan or Atheistic website that was being blocked for some reason and a teacher wanted it unblocked for educational purposes, it would be no problem for that teacher to contact the IT department in order to have it unblocked and made available for his/her student(s).
Dorothy emphasized that, as far as she knows, no religious web content is being censored from the schools' computers based on any specific religion; it would only be censored if it had a blog or social networking option.
The IPS policy document that was included in the original article about the subject of web content filtering was mentioned to Dorothy as a show that there was documentation of the alleged censorship. When presented with this information, she stated that it may have just been lumped in as a generalization and not stringently applied to the schools' computers.
Based on what Dorothy has said, IPS is trying to do its best to encourage diversity among its students regardless of their religious preference and is not currently blocking Pagan/Wiccan or Atheistic web content from their computers.
Next up on this topic...ENA has been contacted to request an appointment in order to interview the person responsible for the web-filtering categories. Wonder what they have to say about it? Check back later to find out the answer!
Related Articles:
Indianapolis Public Schools censor Pagan web content as well as other groups
Questions to ask Dr. Eugene White, Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools
Response from Dr. Eugene White, Indianapolis Public Schools Superintendent
ENA and content filtering categories for the Indianapolis Public Schools
Comments
Hello! Merry Meet! I am the Pagan Travel Examiner and I want to congratulate you on the great job you are doing with this topic! Excellent! I am subscribed to your column and wll be reading it regularly!
I see that the ENA website explicitly lists "catholic.net" as acceptable, but "wicca.com" as not acceptable. Under the category of religion, the ENA website states, "Does not include sites containing alternative religions such as Wicca or witchcraft (Alternative Spirituality/Belief) or atheist beliefs (Political/Activist Groups)." This is an apparently clear discriminatory bias against minority religions.
Why should a child who is from a Judao-Christian family have more access to information regarding their beliefs than someone from a Wiccan family? Why should a child have more exposure to Judao-Christian websites than atheist or minority religions? This is a distinctly discriminatory means of categorization and filtering without any apparent basis other than majority vs. minority.
"catholic.net, gospel.com, lds.org" the websites listed as examples of approved websites under the category of "Religion" are notably and specifically Christian (not even a token Jewish or Islamic
Here is a related article from April of this year regarding LGBT upset over the unjustifiably discriminatory basis of the filtering categories. ENA's response was,
""ENA's role is to provide internet services to our customers, which are school districts across Tennessee and other states," the statement read. "While our service includes filtering functionality, it is our customers who make the decisions about which categories are blocked or unblocked.""
While it is important to hold ENA accountable for their involvement in this issue, it is equally important to follow the flow of money to it's source: the customer.
I've written ENA for a response on this issue and would be happy to pass any information on to you Andrah. I can be reached via email at ftp@thewicca.ca
I have the same problem at work, our net nanny blocks COG, Witchvox, etc., and most shopping websites like Isisbooks...I even get the ACCCESS DENIED on the Wicca page of ReligiousTolerance.org...All that, but I can look at all the Jack Chick tracts I can stomach, and any crackpot Preacher/Minister/Messiah that has a hate-spewing website...grrr...
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