On Tuesday September 28, the Benilde-St. Margaret’s technology department removed Internet filters–with the exception of indecent content filters– during homeroom in an attempt to allow students to crash the network, or ‘sink the ship.’ The tech department wanted to find out how much the network is able to handle before crashing under the virtual weight of audio and video streaming.

Sink the Ship Day was an idea developed by Mr. Steve Pohlen, the Director of Technology and Learning, and Mr. Don Aslett, the Director of Network Administration. It allowed students to visit almost any website they wanted to for 15 minutes and gave them the ability to stream audio and video. The goal was for the students of BSM to crash the network.

Sink the Ship Day got its name from the nervous feelings of the tech department at the beginning of the school year. “The first day of school was kind of like sitting inside of a submarine. You hear it creaking, you hear all the sounds, and you wonder if it really does what it’s meant to do,” said Mr. Pohlen.

Students have already undergone the situation of not having access to the Internet at school once this year. Hopefully, Sink the Ship Day will solve this problem. We’re trying to find out what we’ve been building over the last few years. Is [the network] going to function like it’s meant to?” said Mr. Pohlen.

An email from Mr. Aslett regarding the event has been sent to students along with the opportunity to reply. “We’re hoping to get feedback from students,” said Mr. Aslett, “Students can say ‘Here’s what I was able to do, here’s what I wasn’t able to do.”