PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Before signing their child up for school, many parents may do a quick Google search.
- Violent images displayed in Google school searches
- Pinellas County school district says it doesn't control the photos
- Parents can report photos to the search engine
But when Spectrum Bay News 9 searched some Bay area schools, we found some results that will leave you shaking your head.
The Google results for Palm Harbor Middle School are shocking to say the least. They includes images of guns and grenades instead of schoolwork and students.
A Teletubby holding a shotgun or an image of a gun to the head of a cartoon character showed up in the image results of several Pinellas County schools.
"There's too much going on nowadays to have something like that come up on a Google search for your school," said parent Steven Chadwick.
The school district says it doesn't control the images and that they are instead controlled by Google. Parents can report the images to the search engine.
Chadwick said the school system should have more say on the issue.
"I think they should be able to take it down," he said. "I think the school district should have more authority when it comes to the school and the searches of their school to be able to control what's shown on Google or whatever website's pulled up."
We checked Google and if you click on the flag on the photo, you can report it. There was no word on how long it will take for the image to be removed and if there's anything to keep some of those images from popping up again.