Youtube becomes accessible

The most popular website for videos has been unblocked on student network.

Cast off into the depths of cyberspace, Youtube has long been inaccessible on school computers and laptops is now available. Youtube, the most popular video-sharing site used by millions was banned for years from the Department Education student network. The school had to request that it be removed from the banned list. Each school makes that decision and must petition the DOE tech department to re- lease the site.

When asked why she choose to have You- tube unblocked, Ms. Jennifer Korten ,assistant principal of technology responded, “Simply because I found out I could, teachers have been asking me to have it unblocked for sometime.”

find on Youtube. With both videos into their classrooms.

Another drive head- By: CandiCe ayer ed by Savannah Helton, a

To promote good health The Curtis Health Center hosted a carnival on Friday, February 28. The stu- dent cafeteria was custom- ized with posters promoting healthy habits and tables with different activities. Teach- ers, staff members, students, and others from outside of Curtis flocked to the event

from 3:30 to 7 p.m. To raise money

for colon cancer Laurie Da- gheslano, a parent volunteer, collected one dollar from each student who attended. Jamie Rogers, a sophomore, was motivated by personal ex- perience to organize the Co- lon Cancer charity part of the event. “My aunt was diagnosed with colon cancer and it had spread throughout her body, but she beat it in the end,” Rog- ers said. Her dentist was also affected: ”He went through all the radiation treatment.”

Besides colon can- cer, many different volun- teer groups were there to represent their campaigns.

social worker, promoted the awareness of domestic vio- lence by concentrating on healthy communication with others, such as peers and spouses. These campaign ef- forts are represented locally in many other schools as well.

In addition to the education- al aspect of the event, there were fun activities and games. These included the 2014 Just Dance, Pacman for PS2, A Graffiti Wall, and a health trivia game. There was also a healthy selfie booth. Students were able to put on acces-

There’s nothing you can’t bringing certain educational

entertaining and educational videos, Youtube has it all – but that was the problem, it was a huge distraction. With schools embracing technol- ogy and allowing students to use laptops, students’ pos- sible distractions grew expo- nentially, as a result, schools had to limit which sites could and couldn’t be viewed. Any site that was considered a so- cial network was also banned. The Department of Education wanted to protect students from possible predators that “fish” for victims in chat rooms, and other interactive websites. Youtube fell into this category.

Youtube however is the primary way that video is embedded in any other web- site. Any link that directed a viewer to Youtube was blocked by the schools filter. This fact forced the DOE to re- evaluate the banned site. The block annoyed some teach- ers, as it prevented them from

“Now with Youtube allowed in classrooms, I can use it to bring educational videos to the classroom, so I’m all for Youtube.” said Mr. Fornabaio.

Although teachers can ac- cess educational clips, stu- dents can also access every- thing else. Teachers now have to rely on students’ self-control in computer labs. Students seemed quite excit- ed with schools’ decision to let students use Youtube. Beshar Saleh said, “I’m glad we’re al- lowed to use Youtube in school because it allows me access to helpful videos and every once and a while a fun video too.”

Other students, like Terrell McCadney, had a dif- ferent opinion, “it’s great that schools brought it back, but I feel it’s a distraction and certain videos should be unavailable to students…”