With the incoming 2025-2026 school year, Principal Dominguez has enforced a new rule at San Rafael High School: in classes, a student can only use school-issued computers. Furthermore, computers, like the Apple laptops favored by many students,  can be confiscated immediately.  As stated, ¨San Rafael High School students are now required to use district-provided Chromebooks for all classroom use, and personal laptops are no longer permitted, as of the 2025-2026 school year.¨ 

Many students don’t like the new rule, and most teachers surprisingly agree. Teachers and students both feel that if this rule is to be enforced upon us, then we should have better technology for everyone to enjoy. 

Maya Kux, a senior student at SRHS, exclaimed, “It’s really difficult to work now, I feel like I’m always waiting the majority of the time for my Chromebook to load.”

While everyone is using these School-issued computers, also known as Chromebooks, with specific applications that slow them down, the addition of poor school wifi makes it very difficult for students to learn and for teachers to teach effectively.

“It takes a lot longer to complete my classwork because the Chromebooks are very glitchy and slow,” agreed another senior, Katherine Garcia, at SRHS. 

SRHS staff members appear to have a similar perspective on the rule change. Sabrina Paiz, a teacher at SRHS, explains how there are pros and cons to the ban. ¨One benefit is equality, so that plenty of students at the school who are in a socioeconomic status that they cannot afford a MacBook, level the playing field.¨ she stated. This makes a reasonable argument because children who cannot afford to buy their own computers might feel unequal to those who do own a personal laptop. 

The downside of this rule is the bandwidth. It would be important for SRHS to invest in higher-quality technology if we intend all students to be on the same network and have those apps installed. 

¨I do think it’s fair because everyone is now forced to use the computers provided, and people can’t be slacking off, but we need better quality school-issued laptops,¨ Katherine Garcia confirmed. 

Everyone I tried talking to about this matter has negative reviews. Not one student or teacher stated their liking for this rule.

¨I think that’s a fair debate, right? Because if you’re going to force everyone into this, why don’t we make sure that we put attention and dedicate our time and money into making sure that it’s not slow and is efficient for teachers and students,¨ said Ms. Paiz.  

Maya Kux, on the other hand, despises the rule for a very specific reason. ¨Having teachers be able to control the tab on our computers is really frustrating because I’m not able to do my work to my full abilities,” Maya explained. Other students have had this issue as well. Working becomes a lot harder when teachers can delete all students’ tabs and don’t realize that it is affecting people negatively. 

She is referring to Securly Classroom, an installation on everyone’s Chromebooks that shares our screens with all of our teachers when in attendance for their class. This app was actually piloted by Ms. Paiz. ¨With more control over computer screens, that seems to be the main driving factor, rather than something like an event happening on a personal computer,¨ said Paiz.

¨I think the school should make changes to how they are approaching this because the school is taking away everyone’s rights to their privacy,¨ Maya Kux declared. “Being able to oversee everything we do on our computers is very invalidating, and it is an infringement on our privacy.¨ 

A lot of students, such as my student interviewees,  dislike this application for various reasons. ¨It’s especially hard when teachers control our tabs and it deletes all of the work I’m completing for other classes,¨ said Katherine Garcia. 

Ms. Paiz is not aware of other schools that have a similar policy banning non-school-issued technology.

There has certainly been speculation and rumors around the school about a specific incident happening that encouraged the ban at SRHS, but no solid evidence exists to prove this. 

So, what is the most logical reasoning? 

¨I think that there’s just a move towards the school district trying their best to decrease distractions as much as possible,¨ said Ms Paiz.