“BYOD” or “bring your own device” seems like the perfect idea when all EHS courses are now on Schoology, right? But what are the new policies these devices are bringing with them?

As stated in the EHS “BYOD Program Student Guidelines:

“Students have limited expectations of privacy when using a personal device at school. At any point in time, any school personnel reserve the right to view a student’s electronic device for content to determine its appropriate use. Any student that violates the Access to Electronic Networks policy may be disciplined by an administrator, including confiscation of the device.”

EHS senior Tristan Blair only uses a device occasionally but feels that these new policies are reasonable.

“I can understand the need for the school searching devices. If they have a legitimate reason to believe that people are doing things dangerous to others or even illegal on their devices, then it’s the school’s responsibility to handle it, whether it seems fair or not,” Blair said.

But even though Blair understands the need for searches with cause he does see how easily there could be other problems.

“What is considered reasonable cause isn’t the same for everyone,” Blair explained. “I’m sure nearly everyone will use their devices responsibly, but it can be very easy to spread information and cause someone else’s device to be unfairly searched.”

These are many of the same worries EHS senior Jacob Hinds has.

“I’m not just using my device for school. It is also my personal device so if it is confiscated they have access to see whatever I was doing on my phone/computer even outside of school when not on their Wi-Fi network.”

EHS assistant principal Paul Stuart feels that students really don’t need to worry as long as they follow school guidelines.

“We will only be monitoring sites students are using when connected at school. For a phone to be searched it would need to be a serious offense that would require Edwardsville police involvement,” Mr. Stuart said.

So worries about what students are doing when not connected to EHS WiFi seem unnecessary.

“The policies this year really aren’t different than in the past,” Mr. Stuart said. “It has always been there, and the policies are the same on phones, IPads and laptops.”

The use of new devices seems to be the experiment of this school year. Hopefully, by the end of this year BYOD seems worth the while.

“I think this year there will be some kinks in the system that will need to be worked out,” Blair said. “As time goes on students will know what is and isn’t acceptable to do on personal devices, and school administrators will learn what behaviors need to be looked for and disciplined.”