Connecticut Student Claims High School Blocking Conservative Websites

A high school student in Woodbury, Connecticut, claims that a firewall is blocking conservative websites at his school.

Local Fox affiliate WTIC Fox CT reports that Andrew Lampart, a senior at Nonnewaug High School, found that he was unable to get on the National Rifle Association’s website while at school and researching material for a classroom debate on gun control last month.

“So, I went over to the other side, and I went over on sites such as Moms Demand Action or Newtown Action Alliance, and I could get on these websites, but not the others,” Lampart told Fox.

Investigating further, he added, “I immediately found out that the State Democrat website was unblocked but the State GOP website was blocked.”

Lampart then researched websites that focus on issues such as abortion and religion. He said he discovered that “right to life” groups were blocked by the firewall but that Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice America were not.

The student said he also tried to explore websites like Christianity.com and the Vatican’s website, but both were blocked. Islam-guide.com, however, was not blocked.

“They’re trying to, in my opinion, shelter us from what’s actually going on around the country and around the world by blocking these websites,” Lampart said. “It should be the other way around. The websites should be unblocked so that students can get different viewpoints from different sides of each argument.”

Lampart said he notified the Woodbury Schools superintendent but that he received no response, and nothing was changed after a week. He then decided to take his concerns to the district’s board of education on Monday.

“It’s not a joking matter in terms of having access to both sides of an issue,” school board chairman John Chapman said. He told Fox CT, “The board appreciated hearing the comments from Andrew and agree that he has raised an important issue that warrants further investigation.”