Wake school board moves forward with policy changes on internet and device monitoring

The current technology policy says students should have no expectation of privacy when using school devices or connected to the school Internet.

A related regulation change, discussed and not voted on, says the district at any time could take any device (owned by the school or not) that is being used for educational purposes at school and inspect its use. If the district finds anything that violates student code of conduct or law, the district can report it and move forward with discipline.

The Wake County Board of Education’s Policy Committee moved the proposal forward Tuesday without dissent. Board members, during discussion, disagreed whether the proposal should extend to devices merely connected to school Internet.

Board Member Monika Johnson-Hostler noted that some children may not have Internet access outside of school. Further, she said, devices often automatically connect to school Wi-Fi, if they’ve connected once before. A lot of people may not notice that, including children, who are often seen as tech-savvy because of how much they use technology, she said.

“They know very little about how their technology actually works,” Johnson-Hostler said. “They use the apps they use and that’s really it.”

Board Member Jim Martin objected to including network-connected devices among those that could be monitored, arguing that it’s not a practically enforceable rule. It wouldn’t be enforceable if Internet becomes a public utility, as he hoped.

But as it stands now, Martin said monitoring devices connected to school Internet might be more about monitoring and potentially punishing specific students, rather than conducting a wide review of Internet use.

The board did not decide to remove the language from the proposed change after some discussion. Some members favored the language under the context of rules against using school Internet in political campaign work.

Like people using school printers to make campaign fliers, using school Internet for campaigning should be against the rules, too, Board Member Karen Carter said.

Debate Tuesday largely concerned whether the district should have an equity policy. Several board members said it was essential, noting “equity” may mean a lot of things to a lot of people and a policy would help define it for the school district.

But Martin, who said the district’s new strategic plan should be constructed chiefly with equity in mind, said an equity policy couldn’t be governed because it’s more of a wish list in nature, rather than a document outlining specific actions to take under defined circumstances.

He said the board and school district have already been working toward many of the goals in the equity plan, such as diverse staffing, but hasn’t necessarily reached its goal. The proposed policy could put the district out of compliance with its own policy, he said, then asking, “But will the work change?”

Other board members said the policy would make clear what the board and district mean when they set equity goals.

“When we talk about equity, having a written policy in place I believe is crucial,” Board Member Chris Heagarty said. “Right now when people hear equity… it means a lot of different things for a lot of different people.”

For example, he said, a lot of times parents ask to do something but can’t have it and are told it’s because of equity. If they can’t bring cupcakes into the classroom, they’re told it’s because of equity, he said.

“I think it’s a term that gets a lot of misuse,” Heagarty said.

The proposed policy defines equity in an educational context.

“Educational equity is defined as raising the achievement of all students while narrowing the gaps between the lowest and highest performing students and eliminating the racial or cultural predictability and disproportionality of which student groups occupy the highest and lowest achievement categories,” the proposed policy reads.

The proposed policy notes several other actions the board and the district plan to do. Among them: to look at their teaching resources to see if they are biased, to recruit diverse teachers and administrators, to train teachers on better educating diverse students, to have conversations about social and cultural factors that shape teaching and learning in classrooms.