Did you know that if a student of Bethpage High School were interested in illegally buying an actual Juul, all he would have to do is hop on one of the many computers in our building and look up “How to buy a Juul as a minor” in Google, and he’d be able to successfully recover “https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-way-to-buy-a-JUUL-online-as-a-minor-1”, with steps of how to do so?

But it doesn’t stop there: the same can be done to find information on “microdosing” and “buying LSD.” However, if that same student wanted to play child-friendly games such as “Papa’s Cupcakeria” or “2048” on coolmathgames.com, the website comes up as blocked along with webkinz.com, Poptropica.com, nickjr.com, play.pollypocket.org and barbie.com.

We all know that juuling, and vaping in general, has become epidemic in schools all over the country. Why would something as harmless as a computer game be blocked, but students are able to get full access to buy harmful drugs? Some students noticed the website was blocked within the first few days of school. During some free time in class, they tried accessing the aforementioned websites, only to see that they were unable to log in.

Kelly Xhumba, a sophomore here at BHS, was a regular coolmathgames.com user. She would keep the occasional game of Moto X3M running in the background on her chromebook, yet still maintain an A+ average all year with great participation in her classes.

If something as harmless and innocent as Coolmath is blocked, which is already censored to a degree–it was expected to be used in schools by the creators–why aren’t websites promoting illegal substances also blocked? Coolmath should be unblocked, since many of the website’s games are educational. By blocking the accessibility to games on the chromebooks, BHS only further promotes the use of phones in class.

Teacher frustration is understandable when students play games during a lesson. Mr. Lynch, a BHS AP US teacher, said, “People in general spend too much time looking at screens. [The blocking of Coolmath is not] the worst thing that ever happened.”

Although video games can be distracting to students during class, it remains much better than looking up “how to buy drugs,” and increasing phone usage–all of which are far more destructive, whether it be to student’s health or attention spans, respectively.

Furthermore, the popular music streaming website, Spotify, was blocked at least a year ago. Spotify.com is completely harmless, as there is no way to hide listening to music from a chromebook. Students only used this website during downtime in class when teachers don’t let them use phones. Mr. Lynch continued to add that teachers have experienced times where useful and educational websites and videos have also been blocked.

There are some obvious reasons for the blocking of coolmathgames.com; however, the district should focus on blocking the websites that really matter by possibly using keywords to filter out websites that may be destructive to students: Coolmath is decidedly not one of them.