With no credit cards, Ashlie Butler and Kristina Nutter, both 13, could only dream. They turned to Tommy when they ran into a dead end during their search for NASA's Web site. Their teacher had been too busy helping others to get them unstuck, they said. Here, with the help of a new satellite dish perched on the school's roof, students can experience the fastest Internet connection of any school in the county. Where Web site connections once took several minutes, they now appear in an instant.
Research becomes a breeze.
It is also a classroom where the kids see a steady stream of targeted ads from Tommy Hilfiger, the Navy, the Marine Corps, folks who publish SAT test prep books and a host of others. A small group of parents, backed by two groups active in a nationwide campaign against commercialism in schools, argued that the classroom should be the one place where children are not subjected to advertising pitches. Personal information about students would not be sent into cyberspace. West Hernando, which beat the other schools in turning in the necessary paperwork, was the first school in the county to get zapped. Shipments carrying the computers for the other middle schools and high schools are due any day.