Recently at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, students with VPN apps have been kicked off of the CNUSD BYOD service. A VPN is a private network that can be downloaded and used to bypass certain restrictions and blocked websites from the CNUSD BYOD. However, most students here at Eleanor Roosevelt High School used the VPN app in order to get better service and connection on campus. Last week, at the end of February, ERHS has decided to take off users who are connected to both BYOD and VPN in order for students to not receive stronger wifi and connection with the leeway to go on restricted websites not approved by the CNUSD servers.

When asking Phoebe Wang, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt high school and VPN user who got kicked off BYOD, about why they first downloaded a VPN on their phone, Wang stated, “I downloaded a VPN for research because I can’t access certain sites for what I really need in class. And BYOD blocks blogs and other sites I need for my own research.”

Moreover, when asking Pheobe Wang  and Rebecca Liu, another senior who got kicked off BYOD, about how their phones were affected after getting kicking off BYOD, Wang stated, “Service at school and specific buildings are generally bad and even though I have data and the basic school WIFI, I still can’t use Google or Safari.” Liu agreed and stated, “The service here on campus is really bad especially when you get in specific buildings and it prevents me to get into certain stuff. For example, during finals week I couldn’t turn in my method section for my research class and other assignments for school.”

Furthermore, when asking Emma Imakavar, a senior at ERHS who was not kicked off BYOD, about her thoughts about others with a VPN getting disconnected from the BYOD server, she stated, “I wasn’t kicked off VPN but seeing what I saw from others, I think that our schools implementation of technology into every classroom makes students who are not connected to the BYOD server or doesn’t have their own devices left behind being forced to work on laptops in classes. It’s been a one route learning process that’s reliant on technology and it doesn’t encourage a variety of ways of learning.”

Those students who were disconnected from the BYOD server due to their use of a VPN network, are enduring the percussion for WIFI and service on campus. However, once disconnecting from a VPN, students are welcomed to join the BYOD server to share a better connection.