Petition to Ban Blocking and Surveillance Software in Schools
We, concerned educators, parents, students, and citizens, urgently call on school districts and policymakers to end the use of intrusive content-filtering and surveillance software in classrooms. These so-called “safety” tools actively censor information, track students’ every digital move, and violate basic rights under the guise of security. They block access not only to pornography or violence, but also to legitimate educational content – including health and civil rights information – and create a pervasive “Big Brother” environment that chills learning. Our research and that of digital-rights organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) show that this software undermines students’ First and Fourth Amendment rights, collects and exposes sensitive personal data, and harms educational and psychological development. This is a national crisis affecting tens of millions of students; it demands immediate action.

Blocking Software Silences Students and Hampers Learning
Students have a constitutional right to access information and ideas. School internet filters and AI monitoring tools often violate that right by arbitrarily censoring content. For example, EFF has documented that monitoring programs like Gaggle and GoGuardian routinely “flag and block websites for spurious reasons,” cutting off access to speech, history, health, and advocacy content. In one publicized case, a Pennsylvania school’s filter blocked all websites that “express support” for LGBTQ people and even political advocacy sites labeled “intolerant,” prompting an ACLU warning that the district was violating students’ free-speech rights. Studies show schools across the country are blocking sex education, LGBTQ+ resources (even suicide prevention sites), academic research tools, and immigrant-related content. Nearly one-third of teachers report that their schools block LGBT-related content, and about half block any information on sexual orientation or reproductive health. Black and Latino students report disproportionately high blocking of sites about people of color.

Such subjective, unchecked censorship directly undermines education. A CalMatters survey found that 75% of teachers say students simply find workarounds to get information, meaning the filters do not prevent access to any truly harmful content, but they do hamper students’ ability to complete assignments. One student reports avoiding her school-issued Chromebook altogether because routine research on controversial topics (e.g. civil rights or LGBTQ+ issues) kept hitting blocks. Schools may believe they are protecting children, but in reality these filters block constitutionally protected speech and cut students off from knowledge. We demand a learning environment free of censorship, where young people can safely explore ideas without hidden gatekeepers.

Surveillance Software Violates Students’ Privacy
Beyond blocking content, many schools deploy invasive surveillance tools that continuously monitor students’ digital activity. As EFF warns, we are to “imagine your search terms, key‑strokes, private chats and photographs [being] monitored every time they are sent” – a nightmare for any free society. Yet millions of students nationwide experience exactly this on school-issued devices. Nearly half of all K‑12 students are subject to digital surveillance that can log “every word or phrase” they type. Tools like GoGuardian and Gaggle scan students’ online assignments, web searches, and even personal messages for “keywords,” flagging innocuous content as suspicious. Public records obtained by EFF show students being flagged for reading Romeo and Juliet, the Bible’s Genesis, civil‑rights essays – and even for math homework. These false positives disproportionately target disadvantaged, minority, and LGBTQ+ youth, entangling students in invasive follow-up for harmless behavior.

The Fourth Amendment protects students from unreasonable searches of their person and effects – and that includes digital searches. Supreme Court law (New Jersey v. T.L.O.) holds that even in school, searches must be reasonable and not overly intrusive. Yet blanket scanning of students’ communications and browsing without individualized suspicion is precisely the kind of dragnet search that raises constitutional concerns. These systems often operate 24/7: GoGuardian, for example, can be set up to monitor a student for eight hours at a time and chained together to watch a student around the clock, whether the student is on campus or not. During each “scene,” the software records minute-by-minute screenshots of everything on a student’s screen and all open tabs. The data are stored in a timeline that school staff – and the company itself – can access. In some cases, teachers have even been able to activate student webcams at home without students’ knowledge. This panopticon of surveillance creates a climate of fear: if every click or word might be scrutinized, students learn to self-censor. Journalism students in Kansas successfully campaigned to exclude themselves from monitoring, arguing that such surveillance would “have a chilling effect” on critical reporting and open discussion of school issues.

We call on courts and lawmakers to recognize that this novel technology implicates both the First and Fourth Amendments. The blanket filtering of educational content is a form of viewpoint censorship, and the nondiscriminatory search of every student’s private digital life is arguably “unreasonable” without specific cause. Students’ rights to free inquiry and privacy must be protected. Instead of subjecting students to automated secret surveillance, schools should address safety concerns through trained counselors and community support – not by scanning private communications of all children.

Data Harvesting and Privacy Risks
Blocking/surveillance software isn’t just censorious – it also harvests massive amounts of sensitive data from children and often shares or exposes it recklessly. EFF’s research found that school-issued devices and apps “collect far more information on kids than is necessary”, storing it indefinitely and even uploading it automatically to cloud servers. This includes not only basic identifiers (names, birthdates) but detailed browsing histories, search terms, contacts, locations, and behavior patterns. A recent analysis showed an astonishing 96% of education apps share student data with third parties (often marketers) by default, leaving families unaware of who has access.

Companies behind school surveillance explicitly tout their data-collection. GoGuardian logs every webpage a student visits and the search terms they use; it even tracks where and when a device is used to build a profile of each child. Gaggle and others warn school staff of any flagged phrase, but do not disclose what they collect or how it is protected. In practice, data security is minimal. Many programs lack any robust system for managing or safeguarding the information they gather. This creates a high risk of data breaches or misuse. In 2024, for example, hackers stole thousands of student records from a U.S. school district’s AI surveillance system (in Vancouver, WA). Even without breaches, private companies can monetize these profiles. As one industry report soberly notes, student edtech tools often act as “digital marketing assistants,” trading on young people’s data. Such exploitation treats children as data commodities.

This is ethically and legally unacceptable. Children generally cannot give informed consent to such invasive data collection, and parents are rarely informed. State and federal laws like FERPA and COPPA were meant to guard student privacy, but the edtech industry has exploited loopholes to sidestep oversight. We urgently demand strict limits on data collection in schools: at minimum, any monitoring software must be fully transparent, opt-in, and subject to data-protection rules. In practice, the safest course is to ban intrusive blocking/surveillance software altogether, ensuring students’ digital privacy and dignity.

Harm to Students’ Well-Being and Equity
Beyond legal rights and data privacy, blocking software harms students’ development and well-being. Constant surveillance in a learning environment breeds stress, anxiety, and mistrust. A student flagged incorrectly (perhaps for researching violence in history or self-harm in a story) can be subjected to alarmist interventions by untrained staff or even law enforcement. EFF warns that false positives may cause trauma if, for example, a child is mistakenly flagged as planning suicide or violence and then confronted by authorities. Victims of these errors often lose trust in their teachers and school, and some become reluctant to ask for help when they need it.

The educational impact is profound. Learning thrives on curiosity and exploration. When students know they are watched, they will avoid important topics. One California teenager reported that after hitting “blocked” screens while researching her debate topics (e.g. LGBTQ+ rights), she resorted to doing homework on her personal device off school Wi-Fi. This workaround undercuts the value of school-issued technology and may expose students to unmonitored networks. Teachers themselves are frustrated: many report that filters often impede lesson planning and require valuable class time to bypass or correct.

Moreover, the harm is inequitable. As one fight-for-privacy campaign puts it, these tools “disproportionately harm” marginalized students – from students of color to LGBTQ+ and low-income youth. Rigid filtering enforces cultural and ideological biases (e.g., blocking information about civil rights or queer health), amplifying educational disparities. Requiring students to compromise their personal technology for schooling – or subjecting them to biometric “spyware” just to take an exam – is fundamentally unjust. Education should empower all young people, not surveil and silence the most vulnerable.

Widespread and Urgent: A National Call to Action
This is not a niche issue. Tens of millions of American students are affected. Over 30 million students use Google’s G Suite for Education, often on school-issued devices. GoGuardian alone monitors 27 million students in 10,000 schools nationwide. In the rush to modernize classrooms, schools from blue states to red have deployed these tools – even offering them free during the pandemic. Meanwhile, state legislatures (in Texas, Florida, Utah, and others) have been considering laws that would further restrict youth access to certain online information, compounding the problem.

We cannot wait. Every day, another generation of children is subjected to hidden filters and snooping algorithms. The urgency is heightened by current social climate: students today need full access to information to navigate issues like public health, civil rights, and digital citizenship. Instead, they are being trained to accept surveillance as normal. This petition demands nationwide attention to this crisis. We call on policymakers and school boards to repeal or reform policies (like aspects of CIPA) that mandate blanket filtering, and to prohibit the use of algorithmic monitoring software on school devices. The goal of education should be to open minds, not close them.

Demands
We therefore petition:

• Immediate Ban on School Surveillance/Blocking Software. All public schools and colleges must stop using software that filters or monitors students’ online activity. Educational environments should be free from blanket censorship and spyware.
• Privacy-Respecting Alternatives. When needed, schools should address safety and content concerns through human-centered solutions (trained counselors, moderated discussion, digital literacy programs) rather than automated spying. Any technology used must respect students’ privacy, require explicit consent, and only collect minimal data.
• Legal Protections and Oversight. Legislatures and regulators should clarify that students’ First and Fourth Amendment rights apply in digital learning. For example, filters that block constitutionally protected speech (e.g. on politics, health, or art) should be deemed impermissible. Similarly, indiscriminate searches of student devices should require individualized suspicion and judicial oversight.
• Data Security Requirements. All educational technology vendors must adhere to strict data-protection standards. Students’ data should not be sold or shared with third parties, and robust safeguards (encryption, audits, breach notifications) must be mandatory.
• Community Involvement. Parents, students, and educators must have a voice in choosing school technology. School boards should hold transparent hearings on these tools and allow opt-outs without penalty.

Conclusion
In summary, blocking and surveillance software in schools is antithetical to education. It censors knowledge, violates privacy, and exploits student data, all without clear benefits to safety. This petition is not about protecting controversial ideas for their own sake; it is about ensuring that young people have access to accurate information and can learn in an atmosphere of trust and openness. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes, students are already fighting back against these digital cages. Now it is time for adults – educators, policymakers, and citizens – to stand with them.

We, the undersigned, call on all school districts, educational policymakers, and government leaders to ban the use of blocking/surveillance software in schools and to adopt privacy-respecting solutions that honor students’ rights and foster genuine learning.