Her complaint led schools to take down site

By Diana McFarland

Managing editor

A parent of a Smithfield High School freshman took her child to an open house last week and found what she considers homosexual pornography that was viewed through the school’s online research database. 

Diana Elswick, an IT professional by trade, was looking up the school’s technology policy on the Smithfield High School website and ended up on the student zone where she found the Gale Virtual Library — an online resource available to school districts in Virginia. 

One of the topic areas offered by Gale is “Gender Studies Collection,” which included articles from “The Advocate,” a gay and lesbian publication. Photos with some articles included nude men. 

“That first picture I was shocked,” said Elswick of one of the photos. Elswick went on to create a video of how she found the material and alerted school officials. 

The Smithfield Times was also able to access the material last week via the Smithfield Middle School webpage.  {mprestriction ids=”1,2,3,4,5,6″}

Once notified, school officials took the site down and disabled all passwords, according to Isle of Wight County schools spokesperson Lynn Briggs. 

Gale company officials also took down the material and initiated an emergency release that has added filters to its student edition resource, according to spokesperson Kayla Siefker.

Isle of Wight is not the only local school division to have “Gender Studies” available through the Gale online database. The Smithfield Times was able to access the topic on high school websites in Hampton, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. 

These databases are stocked with publications and it’s supposed to be academic, said Elswick.

Isle of Wight County School Board Chairperson Vicky Hulick said Friday that the Virginia Department of Education recommended the online database to the division.

Virginia Department of Education spokesperson Julie Grimes said the Gale database is offered through the Library of Virginia.

Efforts to reach the Library of Virginia by press time were unsuccessful. 

Meanwhile, Grimes said school divisions are required by law to update its Internet acceptable use policy every two years. 

The division is required by law to prevent access to material that contains nudity, sexual content, among other items, according to the Code of Virginia. Divisions are also to select filters to block access to child pornography and obscenity, as defined by law. 

Photos viewed via the Gale site contained photos with nudity and sexual content. 

Gale Reference Databases provides content to K-12 schools, according to its website. 

Siefker explained how content is monitored.

“Gale is committed to ensuring age-appropriate content is displayed within our K12 resources and we have several safeguards in place for our databases. While we use automated content filters to refine search results within our K12 products, we recognize that further filtering is necessary. Due to the complex nature of many topics, which could be keyword filtered as inappropriate — for example, topics related to science, health and sexual reproduction — our editors also manually review content as it is curated. In addition, we conduct case-by-case evaluations when specific materials are questioned,” she said. 

“Additionally, on the Library of Virginia website, the Diversity and Gender Studies collection is listed in the Newspapers and Magazines section intended for adult general reference, and along with other Gale Databases, is categorized separate from the designated Student Resources,” Siefker added. 

The last time Isle of Wight updated its acceptable computer system use policy (IIBEA-R/GAB-R) was in 2013. Two other related policies have been removed for editing, according to the Isle of Wight County schools website. 

The acceptable computer system use policy currently on the division’s website states that the school division has “taken precautions to restrict access to materials deemed controversial, objectionable or harmful to juveniles.” 

School Boards have an obligation to follow the law, said Grimes, adding that the VDOE does not fund nor review the content offered by Gale. 

Hulick said the division has been working to update its myriad policies, and have some that date back to the 1990s that are awaiting revisions.

Elswick took a special interest in the online content available to students because she works in information technology and knows how accessible objectionable material can be. For that reason, she was upset that her son is required to have a laptop to do his schoolwork.

“I know how bad it is. There is no way to keep it all out,” said Elswick. 

Elswick takes issue with online libraries because of the difficulty in monitoring the content. 

If a book came to a library years ago and contained this material, it would never make it to the shelf, she said, adding she was asked to sign a waiver upon obtaining her son’s laptop that states that no system is infallible and that the school system cannot guarantee that all account users cannot access inappropriate materials.  

With online libraries, none of the adults feel responsible anymore for what is on the shelf, she said. 

Siefker elaborated further on Gale’s company philosophy.

“While we aim to curate materials that are authoritative and age-appropriate, we also respect that libraries provide a safe and anonymous place for youth seeking to research and understand their concerns or curiosities. It is not our role to censor content which can help young researchers gain knowledge about the issues affecting them personally — academically, medically, socially or otherwise. Rather, we work to ensure that the content they discover within our resources is accurate and comprehensive,” she said.  {/mprestriction}