On April 11, an email was sent out via StudentSquare informing students that Google Chat would officially be removed from students’ school Gmail accounts. This came after a series of requests from the administration for students to strictly use Google Chat for school-related conversations, as using it for other purposes caused issues for the administration and local authorities.
”The district decided to officially block GChat due to the increased Gaggle alerts,” PVRHSD Head of Technology Tracy Leigh, said. “…Even after Dr. Billotti’s request to all of the students to take their personal conversations off their school district GChat account and onto their personal messaging accounts, we continued to receive an alarming amount of Gaggle alerts.”
Pascack Valley Principal John Puccio says that the administration understood the positive aspects of Google Chat, so they initially tried to keep it. Ultimately, too many students were using Google Chat for non-education-related purposes.
“There are things that shouldn’t have been put on [Google Chat],” Puccio said. “And we’re not talking once a week… [that] students would get flagged; I think we had 28 flags in a week…”
Puccio explained that many of the messages mentioned violence both towards others and towards the senders themselves. This meant that after the message was flagged, not only did the administration need to get involved, but the police also had to play a role in the investigations.
Another issue that Puccio mentioned was that many teachers noticed Google Chat was a distraction in the classroom.
“In the beginning, we’re wondering: if we have to take it away, what does that look like? What are we going to do to replace it?” Puccio said. “We know Valley does not have great cell service, and taking GChat away was another way that we know parents were communicating with kids.”
Leigh and Puccio both explained that students can still use Gmail to communicate with their parents, teachers, coaches, and classmates throughout the school day, or they can make calls from the main office when necessary. Leigh and Puccio also noted that they have not had much backlash from students or parents in regard to shutting down the platform for students. Each cited fewer than five conversations with students and parents.
“I’ve had a couple of parents reach out to me, and we’ve had great conversations about it,” Leigh said. “By the end of our conversations, they totally understand why we had to turn it off and have agreed it was the best decision for the students and our school district.”
