There are two ways of avoiding the filter:
1. Use a proxy. This will get the IT department yelling at you, and then you'll be threatened with suspension if you don; stop. I'm not sure if this is legal, because nobody has ignored their request yet.
2. Ha, there is no other way.
Websense filters in a peculiar way: everything on the school router has to be sent to the IT department's server (with Websense) before requests can be made to the wider network. If my push to revoke the censorship is turned aside, I plan on popularizing ways to get around it. I think a peer-to-peer system can be set up to ignore the server, but it would be tricky. Or, more simply, I could find ways to tunnel around the damn thing.
I'm not trying to allow people to watch porn or play games at school, not at all. I'm trying to allow people to look up information on the Armenian and Kurd genocides, to allow people to look at the ACLU website, and to allow people to read pages about Islam or Wicca without the message 'Blocked for: Alternative Religions and Lifestyles' popping up. I want people to be able to look up websites that are pro-choice, and not just websites that are pro-life.
The worst part is that the bill that
allows them to have such censorship requires that the policy...
1. prevents access to visual depictions that are obscene; and
2. prevents access to child pornography;
For minors under the age of 17,
3. visual depictions that are harmful to minors must also be blocked.
Because the text-based Human Rights Watch website is
so harmful to minors.