This SLOHS freshman is participating in some “not-so-scholarly” activities. Photo courtesy of senior Angel Tepepa Garcia. 

  It’s very common to see students from all over the world sneak in a couple of online games during class, but this seems to be a more prominent issue inside of San Luis Obispo High School. 

  On May 1, the San Luis Obispo Coastal Unified School District decided to block access to infamous entertainment platform YouTube from all school devices and Wi-Fi. This shutdown brought upon great sadness as it now removes a once grateful getaway from class, thus forcing students to pay actual attention in class. 

  But does this banishment really make a big difference to the way that students divert their attention?

 Many students bring up the claim that this will only make students find more ways to distract themselves from reality with other websites. 

  “It’s pretty easy to access unblocked websites, and a lot of kids have found out how to do it,” said freshman Santiago Baltadano. 

  A quick and simple search of the word “unblocked” on google brings up thousands of results of many google website templates that often carry a bunch of childhood flash or website games. 

  These websites, which hold classics like “Bad Ice Cream,” “1v1.LOL,” and many more are seen being played throughout campus. 

  “I like to go on my phone when I’m bored, and honestly class is always boring,” said sophomore Mateo Barba.

  Computers play a vital role in a SLOHS student’s life at school.  However, iPhones seem to be a bigger issue that many schools can’t control due to privacy issues concerning monitoring. 

  Allocating time for students to have more time to themselves and their devices would allow students to get it out of their system. 

  Many teachers, most notably psych and government teacher Kate Stephens, would allow students to let their energy and need for their devices out of their system for a bit throughout class to ensure better and further concentration during lectures. 

  “I try to have students put their phones in their pockets, and unless I do that directly everyday and every single time, students will find a way to have them and that’s hard. But that’s just my policy,” said Stephens. 

  As the school year comes closer to an end, and graduation comes near, we see students showcasing more symptoms of ‘senioritis’, ‘junior-itis’ or ‘whatever-grade-your-in-itis’ and simply not being motivated for class. 

  So students should be allowed more time to themselves, no matter what.

  What do you think Tigers?