With many students using school internet or email accounts on a day-to-day basis, the amount of access prompts the question of what exactly the Information Technology (IT), administrators, and teachers can track.
While students are using the school network through wired and wireless networks, the school’s network can monitor sites that they access, time spent online, and the general nature of the student’s use of the school network, separate from students using their school email accounts, Director of Technology Services Chin Song said.
“The actual content of personal communications, like emails or texts sent from personal (non-MUSD) accounts, is not monitored or accessed,” Song said.
Even if not on the school Wi-Fi or network, activities can still be monitored if they’re carried out using school email accounts, Song said. Login times and email traffic are tracked, similar to email systems at large companies, colleges, and universities, he added.
“The intention of monitoring is not to infringe on privacy, but to maintain a safe and secure digital environment for all students,” Song said. “This is in line with both educational best practices and legal requirements, such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).”
The level of access administrators have to student accounts and their ability to monitor student activity on the school network frightens her, senior Navi Dasari said.
“I would like to use that email at home, but I don’t want to use it knowing that (the school is) watching what I’m doing,” Dasari said.
Besides being able to monitor activity on the school network, IT is also able to block specific websites like Quora, Reddit, certain videos based on content and appropriateness for a school setting, Song said.
“Websites are typically blocked through CIPA compliant filters,” Song said. “This decision process often involves input from educators, administrators, and sometimes students to balance safety with access to informational resources.”
For a senior applying to college, having access to a wider range of websites is crucial, Dasari said.
“Sometimes, I’m trying to search up when (certain) college decisions are coming out but it’s on Reddit, so I feel that is really unfair because I, as a senior, should have a right to know that,” Dasari said.
Senior Ish Bali believes that YouTube is the most unjustly blocked website when using school networks or email accounts, she said.
“We use those videos for class and then teachers sometimes forget to unblock (the videos), and it kind of gets frustrating,” Bali said. “It takes away from the learning experience because, if I wanted to watch a video that’s educational at school, but it hasn’t been unblocked, my learning has been halted.”
Overall, teachers and administrators have limited access to what students browse on school networks or with their school email accounts, Song said.
“Transparency is key,” Song said. “As technology evolves, so too do our approaches to managing our technology in a way that respects student privacy while ensuring a productive, educational setting.”