Some comments in response to your post:

RE: “Districts, IT staff, Administrators, and most parents WANT Internet filtering in K-12 schools.”

I work with a variety of schools and educational organizations around the states, and this flies directly in the face of what people tell me every day. Some people want filters, some people don’t. Absolute statements, especially without any support, are not particularly useful.

RE: “Instead of hacking the school filter, if these students hacked into your faculty/staff email accounts, would you still not call them the “enemy?””

Interesting comparison, except that this isn’t what students are doing. Thus, while the comparison might be of interest from a rhetorical place, it’s pretty irrelevant, as no one is advocating that students should access other people’s email accounts.

You also assume that filters actually work, and help the students learn to avoid “doing what they should not be doing.” From where are you drawing this conclusion? Are software/hardware vendors actually claiming that filters improve educational outcomes? Is anybody claiming this?

Do your own google searching to see what happened to the dozens of school districts who recently decided to completely turn off their Internet filtering. Teachers wanted it off and gone; now they all want it back.

Most of the gripes I hear about filtering are because the teachers don’t know how to use it (open it up as needed, etc.), don’t care to learn how to use it, were not part of the process of selecting it, or just think everything in the world should be available to students at all times. Books are filtered “in” to our school libraries and no one seems to mind.

Having maintained the Internet filter at a public school, I can tell you that many students ARE the “enemy”. When you look for ways to beat the systems put in place to protect everyone, you are not helping. Instead of hacking the school filter, if these students hacked into your faculty/staff email accounts, would you still not call them the “enemy?” Enemy can be a strong word as used in this proposed NYSCATE session, but what other word she the vendor use to describe these students? His session will most likely help IT admins and school staff figure out ways to prevent the students from doing what they should not be doing.

If the students cut all the fences in the school yard, do you want to include those students in some kind of decision making process as to why they felt the need to cut the fences? No, you find out who did it, discipline them and try to prevent it from happening again.