School's internet filters not good enough, mother says

NEW CANEY, TX (KTRK) -- When Shannan Martinez got a call from her daughter's elementary school computer teacher, she was worried. Now, she's angry.

The class of second graders had an assignment to find an online image associated with each letter of their first names.

"That was a disaster waiting to happen," said Martinez.

When Martinez's seven-year-old came to the letter "N," trouble hit.

"She thought of [the word] 'nasty' -- and she was thinking maybe I can find some squashed bug pictures," said Martinez. "But she didn't type 'squashed bug pictures', she typed 'nasty'."

You can imagine what popped up. The computer teacher saw the images and wrote up the little girl. Martinez inquired about the Internet filters at school.

"They said sometimes they don't work so good," said Martinez. "I expect a guarantee that my daughter isn't going to be subjected to inappropriate content."

The school district issued a statement, reading in part: "New Caney ISD has taken all steps to ensure that we are compliant with the Child Internet Protection Act. We make every attempt to prevent students from seeing inappropriate things on the Internet, but if an accident occurs, students are taught to inform their teacher immediately."

To Martinez, that's not good enough.

"It means that sometimes they're exposed to inappropriate content," she said.

Martinez wants enhanced filters and doesn't think her daughter should be punished.

"She's very confused, she doesn't understand what happened."