A while ago, when I was in Advisory, I came upon a terrible sight. Cool Math Games was blocked! However, we thought it will come back. But it didn't. So, the HCPS community found more games, they got blocked, and the endless and restless cycle went on. Sites were found, then blocked. Now, as of May 2025, they are banning YouTube next year. We, HCPS students, want to restore are old sites back and stop the banning of YouTube.

    We understand that we are not allowed to use "inappropriate content", like gambling, drugs, malware, etc. We kindly ask the HCPS Education Board to unblock certain sites that were banned since August of 2024, to May 2025. If you decide to unblock those websites listed, we will actually have something to do. When we finish our work, some of us don't have anything to do. So, if we unblock some sites, we can have things to do once again when we are done. We also feel stressed, and gaming and give us a break school throws at us. If it stays the same, the endless and relentless cycle of finding and blocking will continue on and on, forever, until the Board decides to stop and unblock the sites.

     First, Spotify was caught in the storm of banning, and now YouTube might be next. YouTube was our secondary music platform after Spotify. Now, with YouTube blocked from computer around Henrico, we would have to resort to Scratch, which is not our optimal use for music. Also, in our free time, some kids at school use it for leisure, and just to relax. Without YouTube, it would just make it our learning environment worse. That is also why I want to unblock music on Spotify. Music drowns out the sounds of school, and help us focus. It also helps us with our mental health. These sites alone, play a crucial play in our school.

     Some of the websites (I have a list at the end), include Cool Math Games, 6x, and our best one, Definitely Science. Our history shows so many blue Securly shields, which is not a good look for us. People are finding unblockers to unblock restricted content, and that can hack their computers, or spread a virus to other computers in the district. Is this how we are trying to make our learning environments "better?" No. Is this supposed to help with our mental health? No. Is this making our peers happier? Obviously, NO! I plan on using this for the rest of my Middle and High School years, so I might be changing this if this doesn't work. I will keep pushing, and won't stop fighting for what I think will help HCPS. Lets get our sites back!

School Board:

Marcie F. Shea, Chair - Tuckahoe

Madison T. Irving, Vice Chair - Three Chopt

Kristi B. Kinsella - Brookland

Ryan E. Young - Fairfield

Alicia S. Atkins - Varina

List of sites I want back, or want to keep:

Cool Math Games, Yandex, 66.ez, 6x, US4, Definitely Science, Pizza Edition, Interstallar, Spotify, YouTube, Twitch, Genius, Reddit, Quora, key words unblocked and speedrun with certain policies, MCDL, G+, some Chrome Web Extensions.

Thank you for everyone's support, and lets make HCPS a better place for everyone!