As a student at East Brunswick, I've witnessed firsthand the importance of technology and internet in our school community. Freedom to digital resources, educational websites, and tools has made learning so much more accessible and streamlined, allowing students to discover a diverse range of sources and information to develop their own opinions and ideas.

However, after the state wide phone ban, recent policies and applications implemented on school-issued Lenovo devices such as AristotleK12  are wrongfully banning access to websites that provide invaluable learning experiences. Many of these websites are crucial for teacher lesson plans and educational extracurricular activities. Learning not only takes place in textbooks and course curriculum but also in practical projects and independent exploration which often rely digital resources.

Students who want to explore ideas and topics outside of class yet do not have access to the internet are significantly limited by these device policies. This is especially concerning when legitimate educational resources are blocked alongside unrelated or inappropriate content. Students should be able to access technology that supports their education while still maintaining appropriate safeguards for online safety.

Listed below are specific educational websites that have been affected (please contact me for additions to the list):

• GitHub/Git: Necessary for Code hosting, collaboration, version control, and programming projects for computer science classes and Code Club
• Mathematical Association of America: Hosts various mathematics competitions and provides mathematics resources (Crucial for Math Team)
• American Mathematics Competition (AMC) and International Mathematics Competition (IMO): National and international competitions for mathematics topics (Crucial for Math Team)
• YouTube: Needed for video resources that teachers may assign
• Scratch: Block-based programming language built by MIT to help students learn programming in an intuitive way
• OnlineGDB: Website that allows you to run and make code in your browser
• Slack: Necessary for Robotics club for communication 
• Wix: Allows students to create their own websites and is needed for many websites that are run on Wix
• wordpress.org: Allows students to create their own websites and is needed for many websites that are run on Wordpress
• Krita: Allows artistically inclined students to make digital art on their computer
• Stack Overflow: Allows students to research and solve problems related with programming and technology
• USACO: United States American Computing Olympiad competition for programming
• LinkedIn: Allows students to network and search for career opportunities
• MuseScore: Allows for music students to explore music composition 
• FL Studio: Allows for music students to explore music production
• Ableton Live: Allows for music students to explore music production (necessary for music production class)
• Baamboozle: Provides learning games for classrooms in a variety of subjects that can be integrated in lesson plans
• Quizizz/Wayground: Provides learning games for classrooms in a variety of subjects that can be integrated in lesson plans
• SoundCloud: Useful for music students to share their music
• Pinterest: Allows for student discovery to find project inspiration and artistic references
• Crunchyroll: Website is crucial to Anime Club activities
• Linux: Although reasonable to restrict installation, students should still be able to explore other possible operating systems
• Replit: Allows students to build sites and apps in their browser
• Discord: Useful for communication within clubs to send announcements and information
• itch.io: Website necessary for students in game design club and classes to share their projects and participate in competitions
• Chess.com, lichess.org, lishogi.org: Websites necessary for students in school Chess club
• PyCharm: An IDE code editor for the Python programming language
• Still work in progress

Listed below is a proposal for a reasonable compromise that I think would serve the students more effectively:

We ask for an educational whitelist where teachers and students can request certain websites to be unrestricted as long as the website is used for academic or learning purposes. Students and teachers are given a google form in which they can give information about the website they believe should be unblocked and opened with reasoning on why. We ask the school to turn off website blockage and filtering after school hours. We also ask that the school use other means beside AristotleK12 to monitor student devices as we believe this application is unreasonable in its restrictions and is a breach of students' privacy.