BY DANIEL SIMONS

Cats playing piano, fat people dancing at sporting events, parodies, funniest fails of August 2013, music videos, and sports bloopers only scratch the surface of Youtube’s treasure chest. Since laptops have been introduced as a required element of education, these are all videos that have been blocked by the powers-that-be. Perhaps until now.

According to Dr. Renner, unblocking Youtube is a serious possibility because students have had trouble accessing Google Drive. With Youtube blocked, it causes a lack of access to Google Drive because Youtube is owned by Google.

Dr. Renner will conduct a series of meetings to see how the community will react.

“I have met with Student Council, the Journalism class, and still have to meet with the PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization), department chairs, and the Board of Education,” said Renner.

Renner is meeting with all teachers as well, talking to them about why this is being done as well as how best to monitor online activity.

In the event that Youtube is officially unblocked, the Acceptable Use Policy will still be in effect, according to Renner.

“The Acceptable Use Policy, found in the back of the student handbook, will apply to students accessing Youtube, but they can’t watch anything that isn’t within the realm of school learning,” said Renner.

Sophomore Hayden Seeger sees the educational aspect of Youtube being unblocked.

“It would be really helpful because then we could watch educational videos or videos that relate with what we are talking about in class to help us better our learning,” he said.

Senior Andrew Grissom is glad this is happening, but believes it is long overdue.

“The main problem I have with the block is that most of us, at least just the seniors, are old enough to take responsibility for our own learning by now. We just want to be respected, not treated like we are children who need to be told exactly what we have to do,” said Grissom.

Sophomore Seth Medlin weighs the pros and cons of unblocking Youtube.

“I believe it would be helpful to unblock Youtube because it would give students the power to have other informational sources which they could share. Even though this power could be abused and and used to waste time, it would be helpful to students in many classes,” Medlin said.

According to junior Ellen Sayre, it would be great for the school because it’s annoying when the Youtube block messes up Google Docs for everyone.

Sayre believes that Youtube is not only good for students, but for teachers as well.

“Teachers actually use Youtube a lot during class,” she said.

For those reading this and thinking that they can watch Youtube videos all day during school, think again.

“I will be asking the teachers to be more vigilant in watching out for students misusing Youtube,” said Renner.