Town Council Questions School Computer Policy

Seeking to allay parents’ concerns, the Altadena Town Council has asked Pasadena school officials for more details about how campus computers were used to access pornographic Internet sites.

The council voted unanimously late Wednesday to ask the Pasadena Unified School District, which also serves Altadena and Sierra Madre, to answer questions about who may have accessed the sites and what is being done to identify and punish the individuals.

The council also wants to know if a policy governing computer access to the Internet existed before the district adopted a new policy last week. Violations of the new policy can result in the expulsion of a student and the dismissal of a staff member.

In November, the district shut down access to the Internet from employees’ homes after discovering that pornographic sites were accessed. Then last month, activist Rene Amy obtained records from the district that showed dozens of such sites also were accessed from computers in school buildings between July and December 1997.

The district said its computer system at that time erased the identification of users who accessed the sites.