LAKE STEVENS — Two third grade students have been suspended from Sunnycrest Elementary School after finding and sharing pornographic images on a school computer.
A third-grade girl searched for sexually explicit images to show classmates, district spokeswoman Jayme Taylor said.
“She intentionally found and shared it,” she said. “That’s why disciplinary action was taken.”
A second student helped share the images with classmates and also was suspended, Taylor said. She declined to specify the second student’s gender. The district has not said how long the suspensions will last.
Administrators learned about the incident Monday afternoon. They notified families with students at Sunnycrest Elementary School via email Tuesday evening.
The district still is investigating what happened, including when the images were shared and how many students saw them, Taylor said. Students were not allowed to use computers at Sunnycrest Tuesday. Officials planned to let students use the computers Wednesday, but the system crashed due to an unrelated issue.
“All third grade accounts were scrubbed clean to make sure the content isn’t on there anymore,” Taylor said.
Lightspeed Systems, the company that manages the school district’s online filters, is working to plug any holes in the network that could let kids access inappropriate websites, she said.
The school district has computers that can be used by students from preschool to 12th grade, according to the 2014-15 parent handbook. There are computer labs in all elementary schools.
“In compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the district has in place an internet filtering solution that blocks access to inappropriate websites,” according to the handbook.
The software is designed to block pornography, gambling, obscene language, adult content, hateful or violent sites and URL shorteners.
“In this instance, the images were searchable and visible due to a change in the search engine that had not been updated by the filtering software company,” the district explained in a statement.
The Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000 requires schools or libraries that receive discounts on Internet or internal connections to block content that could be harmful to children. Participating schools must show that they have a policy in place to block or filter access to pictures that are obscene, show child pornography or can be harmful to minors.
No student, especially a third-grader, should have access to explicit material at school, the Lake Stevens School District said in the statement.
“We are sincerely sorry that this happened,” administrators wrote in the email to parents. “The use of technology and the Internet are integral tools in the education of students, but nothing overrides the importance of your child’s safety while at Sunnycrest.”
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439, kbray@heraldnet.com.
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