SEARCY, AR. (LP) — The gaming and music sites have been blocked on the Searcy Schools campus. If the gaming sites are blocked that means students cannot get on things like Cool Math Games, Hooda math, and other gaming sites on school campus. If the music sites are blocked then students cannot listen to music of their own choosing and they are stuck with whatever the teacher decides to put on for the students to listen to. If the students are stuck listening to the music the teachers pick then how are the students going to enjoy the music they want to.
Principal Gene Hodges of the Searcy High School has given some insight to the problem at hand. He said, “The reason the sites are blocked is that streaming stuff uses bandwidth on the computer system, so by not streaming music and games so much, we have more internet speed to use on what we need to use and not on unneeded gaming sites.” The bandwidth of the computer system is what allows us to stream games and music, if the bandwidth is stretched out too much then the speed of the computer is slowed down greatly. So by not streaming so much the computer runs much faster. Principal Gene Hodges feels that the sites should be unblocked, but the district says otherwise. “The sites being blocked was not my choice, but the whole district choice, like the school board or the district counsel. If I had the choice in the matter though, I would keep the sites blocked, but the choice is ultimately up to the teacher of the class you are in. So if the teacher says you can be on the site then the site is unblocked, if not then the site remains blocked,” said Mr. Hodges.
