ATTENTION FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS ADMINISTRATION, SUPERINTENDENT DR. MICHELLE REID, AND CHIEF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OFFICER GAUTAM SETHI:

This petition serves as an official, collective demand from the student body, parents, and community members of Fairfax County Public Schools. Upon reaching our signature target of 1 Million+ supporters, this entire document—along with the full verification of our massive backing—will be sent directly to your administrative offices. We expect an immediate review of our network filtering rules, an end to automated domain blacklisting, and the restoration of access to these student-frequented domains.

📺 WATCH: THE PROOF OF OVER-BLOCKING
 
Fairfax County Public Schools has officially made the online experience on school laptops and school Wi-Fi completely unusable. It does not matter if it is during lunch, a designated study block, a free period, or while sitting around waiting for the bus after school dismisses—every single time you try to open a browser to relax for five minutes, you are blocked. You get hit with that giant, annoying "Content Blocked" message on almost everything you click.

Lately, the FCPS IT department has gone on an absolute blocking spree, blacklisting things that are completely safe, low-stakes, and created by students for the community. The most ridiculous part is how lazy the filtering has become. The system is literally throwing up error messages that say:

Fairfax County Public Schools. Oops, sites.google.com is not available because it is categorized as Games.
Think about how absurd that is. The county is blocking entire sections of sites.google.com—a tool meant for education, projects, and portfolios—just because the automated filter lazily threw it into the "Games" category. Because of this massive, broken blanket ban, major community projects and student-run hubs like Shattered Realms ([https://sites.google.com/view/13tsr](https://sites.google.com/view/13tsr)) and the ENCHIRIDION ([https://sites.google.com/view/ooo-manual](https://sites.google.com/view/ooo-manual)) are totally blacklisted.

Let’s be completely clear about what these sites actually are: Shattered Realms is a popular game and proxy index that students use to pass the time responsibly during breaks, and the Enchiridion is a student-built site that hosts a custom proxy tool and a clean YouTube layout. These are not malicious platforms. They do not contain adult material, they do not spread malware, and they do not compromise the actual network data security of the county. They are harmless Google Sites and portals where people read up on creative hobbies, watch video content without standard layout distractions, or play simple browser games. Along with these specific platforms, the county has systematically blocked every decent recreational hub, proxy shortcut, and safe community space that students have relied on for years to take a quick mental break.

Things have gotten so ridiculously over-blocked that students have to rely on glitching the network just to see the page. Right now, you can literally click the reload button to stop the site from fully loading, which unloads the filter block for a split second, allowing you to click on the stuff on the page fast and temporarily. But if you wait too long or let the page sit, the filter catches up and blocks the website entirely. We all know IT will probably patch this loop soon. The fact that students have to resort to speed-clicking a refresh button just to read a text page or open a basic video layout proves exactly how broken and desperate the system has become.

Look, we already know the rules. We know we are not supposed to be playing games on our school Chromebooks when we are in the middle of a lesson or trying to complete an assignment. Nobody is arguing that we should be slacking off when the teacher is talking. We completely understand that during class time, schoolwork comes first. But when we are completely done with our work, or when we are sitting at a lunch table with nothing to do, having every single outlet completely blacklisted is just exhausting.

This petition was started for every single student across the county who is completely tired of the extreme over-filtering. If you are a student who wants your favorite browser game back, if you are a creator who is tired of seeing your custom Google Sites blacklisted, or if you are just a student who thinks the county treats us like we cannot be trusted with a basic internet connection, you need to sign this right now.

We are building a massive, undeniable movement here. Once this petition crosses our target milestones and hits over 1 Million+ signatures from students, alumni, parents, and community members who are sick of these heavy-handed policies, this exact text is landing directly in the emails of the Superintendent, the School Board, and the IT leadership. They will not be able to brush this off as a couple of kids complaining in a classroom—they will see a massive wall of over a million people demanding a change.

Here is why the FCPS administration needs to read this, look at the signature count, and change their policies immediately:

1. The academic stress in Fairfax County is way too high for this Everyone knows that going to school in FCPS comes with a massive amount of academic pressure. The county pushes us constantly with heavy course loads, constant testing, projects, and high expectations. Expecting students to stay locked into high-stress academic mode for seven hours straight without any mental outlet is completely unrealistic and burns people out. When we finally get a break at lunch or during a free period, we should be allowed to use our devices to decompress. Playing a quick, basic browser game or watching a YouTube video isn't hurting anyone's education. It actually lets us reset our brains so we can go to our next class and actually focus. Forcing a total lockdown on every piece of entertainment kills student morale and makes the school environment feel unnecessarily restrictive.
2. These proxy and game sites are a response to bad policies The IT department blocks sites like Shattered Realms and the Enchiridion because they contain proxy tools and media access. But the only reason students create and use these proxies in the first place is because the county blocks normal, everyday web functions. Using a proxy to access YouTube or a basic web game during lunch isn't a cybercrime—it's just a student trying to enjoy their free time. Lumping a student-made Google Site into the same category as dangerous web threats makes no sense at all. The IT department needs to stop letting automated bots block entire chunks of the web just because a site contains a proxy layout or game links. An actual human needs to look at what these platforms are and recognize that they are safe for school devices.
3. Blanket web bans completely backfire on school security When FCPS decides to ban literally every single safe outlet for entertainment, it does not magically make students stop wanting to take breaks. It just makes people frustrated. When you block safe, well-known, student-tested platforms like Shattered Realms and Enchiridion, it forces people to go looking for sketchy, unverified bypass mirrors, unblocked proxy links from random places, or shady VPN setups just to watch a video or play a game at lunch. That actually puts school devices and the county network at a way higher risk than just leaving safe Google Sites unblocked. Keeping student-run hubs accessible gives everyone a secure, monitored environment to hang out on without messing with network security or forcing people to find dangerous workarounds.

Our Explicit Demands to FCPS Leadership:
We are demanding that the Fairfax County School Board, Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid, and Chief Information Technology Officer Gautam Sethi look at the immense volume of signatures on this petition and take immediate action. We demand an end to the automated blanket blocking of Google Sites, proxy hubs, and harmless recreational platforms. Specifically, we demand that Shattered Realms, the ENCHIRIDION, and the other safe browser-based game hubs used responsibly by the student body be individually reviewed by actual human staff and unblocked for the network immediately.

If you want your web freedom back, if you are tired of seeing "Content Blocked" on literally everything you click during your free periods, and if you want the school board to finally listen to the students, sign this petition right now.

Do not just sign it and close the tab—share this link everywhere. Put it in your group chats, send it to your friends on Discord, post it where other FCPS students can see it, and let's push this past the 1 Million mark so the administration has absolutely no choice but to respond and unblock our sites.