Call it an early Christmas present to students – or a nuisance to administration. From early to mid-December, two students added Halo and Counter-Strike to school computers. In the short time that students had access to the games, they became wildly popular, especially during classes that frequently used computers.

These Local Area Network (LAN) games, which allowed students to play with each other via a local connection, quickly ate away at class time. Now, WJ administrators and MCPS officials are cracking down. MCPS administrators wrote a script (a list of commands for a computer program) that shuts off a user’s computer if the user tries to access Halo or Counter-Strike. The folder containing the files has also been removed numerous times by the school’s Information Technology Support Specialist, Sue Reber.

“I was notified about the programs by a teacher a couple of weeks ago,” said Reber. “Having unauthorized files on the school’s network is against county policy. This is a mild example of adding unauthorized files, but it’s still against policy.”

The files were initially added almost by accident. Brian Morgan* added Counter-Strike to the school’s “Student Shared” folder on Dec. 9 with the intention of deleting it immediately afterward.

“I mostly added the files as a joke,” said Morgan. “I was planning on deleting it – since it was just a joke – but students can’t delete anything from ‘Student Shared.’ They can only add files.”

Both Counter-Strike and Halo quickly became popular, with many students taking advantage of the school’s LAN connections to play online multi-player games.

“We even had teachers and other staff members playing online with us,” said Morgan. “I’m glad that people had those few days to enjoy the games, but it was never my intention to have them played during class. School isn’t all fun and games.”

Jason Hunt,* who added Halo to the “Student Shared” folder, is less sympathetic to the teachers who had their classes disrupted.

“I can’t say that it wasn’t my intention [to have Halo played] in class,” said Hunt. “I don’t care that it took away from class time.”

Both Morgan and Hunt were questioned by WJ administration, but weren’t severely punished. Even so, neither of them intends to try a similar stunt on school computers in the future, since the school may be less sympathetic if they are found to have put the files on school computers numerous times.

“I encouraged people to play Halo,” said Hunt. “I set up servers for them to use. It amused me at the time, [and] it still does, but I’m not doing that anymore.”

Administrators, both at WJ and at MCPS, stress that unauthorized files are not allowed on school computers under any circumstances, as even a seemingly harmless program could disrupt the school’s network. According to Larry Wong, who is in charge of the MCPS Office of Information Assurance and Risk Management, all files on school computers must be tested by the county in order for them to be deemed compatible with other programs on the school’s network. Reber says, however, that it isn’t wrong for students to use computers to play games during lunch.

“It’s not an instructional part of the day, so – theoretically – students can play during lunch,” said Reber. “In practice, though, the school’s restrictions on student computer use apply throughout the day.”

Wong disagrees, citing county policy: “Anything without an educational purpose shouldn’t be on school computers, regardless of any compatibility,” said Wong. “When you log on to a computer, you agree to the county’s computer use regulations. Everything you do can be archived and monitored. Wherever we see a program that shouldn’t be running, we reserve the right to shut it down.”

It isn’t the first time that the county has dealt with misuse of its computers – most notably, students at Churchill High School used an illegal program to edit their grades. However, this is the most widespread violation of the school’s computer use policy. The school and county responded decisively, albeit somewhat late, and after a brief stint on school computers, Halo and Counter-Strike have been rendered inaccessible at school. If only for the time being, computer use has returned to normal.

* Name changed to protect identity