What many may not know, however, is that these filters are not read-only. Educational Technology and Information Services, commonly known as ETIS, can change Barracuda’s filters to give different permissions.

Barracuda works by denying access to specific URLs set by the district and by searching a page for specific keywords before allowing the user to view the page. If the page contains too many negative keywords, the page will be blocked.

Xavier Marchan, Computer Technician for ETIS, is in charge of taking requests for account changes.

A teacher can call ETIS (242 8324) and request that a certain account, or class, be given permission to search certain sites or sites with certain words that would otherwise be disallowed. If the request is approved, students can log into Barracuda with their Novell account name and password, and access the Internet with different permissions than other students.

"Just as an example, if a biology class is researching the mating habits of bullfrogs, the teacher can call us and we’ll let those students have access to specific sites or unblock the keyword," said Marchan. "If your only goal is educational, there’s nothing to worry about. We’re here for you guys."

Students who try this without having had a teacher change their permissions will be able to log in, but all the filters will be exactly the same.

While this has always been an option, either few are aware of it or few choose to use it.

"I was not aware [that sites could be unblocked]," said Reyna. It is in his class where students most butt heads with Barracuda. "If it was something I knew the district was blocking, and I thought it was appropriate, I would request that it be unblocked. I wouldn’t unblock Youtube. There are things on youtube that I think are inappropriate for students to be watching. They install Barracuda for a purpose. If the district was intentionally blocking a site, I probably wouldn’t request it be unblocked," Reyna said. However, teachers who don’t know about a problem can’t be expected to do much about it. "Students don’t usually come to me about Barracuda filters. Usually it’s because pictures won’t download, which could be the fault of the filter or the website, I don’t know," Reyna said.

Not all students, however, are at the mercy of the district’s censors and restrictions. "There are websites that email you new proxies every day," said one anonymous student. "Anyone can use these proxies to easily get past the block. One that lasted almost a year was