The Blue Valley school district opened up student access to YouTube on school internet servers this week. Blue Valley director of technology Greg DeYoung said this decision was made after teachers and school administrators requested that their students have access to YouTube.

“We get requests from teachers and administrators to evaluate our filter policies around certain sites, and we had enough requests,” DeYoung said. “We felt we really needed to reevaluate our stance on YouTube…and at the end of that process was when we decided to open it up.”

High school students are now allowed unrestricted access to YouTube at school according to DeYoung. DeYoung said there are no filters whatsoever because apps on cell phones and tablets require that YouTube be completely unrestricted in order to function. Sophomore Sofia Koleva said that she hopes students do not abuse this new policy.

“I think [YouTube could be a good resource] as long as students don’t abuse it,” Koleva said. “It’s YouTube, so there’s everything under the sun on there, so I just hope students don’t watch the wrong things on there.”

Science teacher Sarah Derks said students having access to YouTube will be useful in classroom instruction, given that teachers provide guidance for their students.

“So many videos are linked to YouTube, so having the ability for students to use it is great,” Derks said. “There’s always that worry that students will use it for evil.”

DeYoung said the negative aspects to YouTube were considered in this decision, but he believes the educational possibilities from the website are important to consider as well.

“I think collectively for the group that was evaluating it was that there was a lot of benefit to it and we just needed to open it up for high school students,” DeYoung said.

Overall, Derks said the addition of YouTube in classrooms will be beneficial, as long as students use it for educational purposes.

“In general, [YouTube] can be a distraction, but I think there’s a lot of good on there if it’s used appropriately,” Derks said.