Because the federal government demands it, the era of Internet filtering will hit Lawrence public schools within five months.

That doesn’t mean district officials are happy about it.

Access to computers with Internet connections at school is a bonus for students like Isaac Severance, Lawrence High sophomore, who doesn't have access to the Web at home. The Lawrence school district is attempting to comply with federal regulations on the installation of Internet filtering software on classroom computers. Severance surfed the Web on Friday.

“This is just another case of the state or federal government telling us to do something but not provided the funding,” said Hal Hodges, the district’s director of technology.

Supt. Randy Weseman said the district would meet a July deadline to install a filtering system that denies Internet access on any school computer to child pornography, obscenity and other materials deemed harmful to minors.

It will cost the district at least $10,000 annually for the necessary software. And the potential for interference with legitimate learning is high, Weseman said.

What happens if filtering software blocks student access to research articles on abortion? AIDS? Sexual orientation? Breast cancer?

“We want the best filtering system we can get and at the same time we don’t want to filter out instruction that helps kids,” Weseman said. “It’s impossible to have a filtering system that is not draconian and get it all.”

Hodges said a committee has been formed in the district to sort through all the software options. Some carry catchy names: SurfWatch, Cyber Patrol, Net Nanny, CYBERsitter, X-Stop, PureSight and Cyber Snoop.

The situation is as frustrating as a slow Internet connection, Hodges said.

“We don’t even have a major problem of students getting to inappropriate sites,” he said.

While the cost of the mandate to the district could go as high as $40,000 annually, Hodges said the cost to the district of ignoring the federal law would be much greater.

School districts and public libraries that fail to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act risk losing large government technology grants. At stake is $150,000 in federal grants to the Lawrence school district.

The act says districts can’t use any of their federal technology money to pay for filtering. In Lawrence, that cash will have to come out of a budget that is tight already.

Hal Gardner, coordinator of educational technology at the Kansas Department of Education, said public school districts in the state would likely adopt a wide range of programs to meet the law.

The details of each will depend on local standards regarding pornography and obscenity, he said.

“It’s up to communities to say what is appropriate filtering,” Gardner said.

Gardner said the fundamental question districts must grapple with centers on the real threat that Internet filters might undermine legitimate schooling. Creating standards for censoring the Internet is no easy matter, he said.

“It’s like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall,” he said. “That’s why there needs to be common-sense policies.”

Gardner said the Olathe school district already has adopted a quite stringent filtering system.

“They’re so compliant,” he said, “it’s difficult to get in and out of the system.”

But Gardner questioned the ability of districts to stop people keen on skirting controls from hitting on questionable Internet sites at school. He predicted districts across the United States will discover that computer-savvy students will figure out how to outsmart just about any security measure.

“There will be students who can effectively hack through,” he said.