Technology Philosophy          

By Simon Reeves 

11/4/26

Coming into my freshman year at Montpelier High School as a former homeschooler, I was surprised at how lax the phone rules were; nearly free use, everywhere from the classrooms to lunch. However this all changed when, on September 18th 2025, I received an email from our principal Jason Gingold about the new cellphone policy. At the time I was in support of the new policy. Before, students would set their phones away at the start of class. It was loosely enforced, and only applied during class times. The new policy would have us set our phones in a locked box at the start of the day, where they would stay until you left school. There were several good justifications of this policy from the administration, especially the fact that the state would be passing laws in the coming school year enforcing the same rules.

But this year, things got a lot stricter. Suddenly we have to use chromebooks, because personal computers such as Macbooks are banned. A lot of sites across the internet are blocked by category except for those that are strictly approved. While some of these are miscellaneous sites that provide little value or are in fact distracting, others are tools that are inconvenient to have blocked. For instance, I use “fastmail.com” for my personal email, and it is blocked by category (with fastmail falling under the “web mail” category). Additionally, I use fastmail to store my passwords and to communicate with sites such as Common App or Collegeboard for college applications and AP classroom. Sites such as this are victim to the Securly filter that our school uses.

If you're seeing a blocked page, it means your school has chosen to block this website using Securly Filter. Schools filter the internet to keep students safe online and comply with federal laws, such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires blocking inappropriate or harmful content.

Common Reasons a Page Might Be Blocked

It falls into a blocked category (like games, social media, violence, or adult content).

It’s a new website that hasn’t been reviewed yet and is being blocked just in case.

The site was miscategorized, and your school’s filter is set to block that type.
—https://support.securly.com/hc/en-us/articles/214616977-Filter-How-do-I-find-out-why-a-particular-site-was-blocked

The initial rules were fine at first, but more and more it started to feel like a nuisance. Our education system revolves around technology. Where can we see where we’re signed up for Solon Block (a 40 minute time during the MHS day to study or meet with teachers)? Powerschool on our computers. Where do we do research for assignments? Our  computers. Where do we write our essays? Our computers. Where do we find our homework? Where do we see announcements from the administration? How do we do work for AP classes and work on college applications? Our computers.

Now “our computers” means “chromebook.” Now “research” is incredibly limited because almost everything is blocked. Countless times this year, teachers have given me assignments that require research. I have worklabs. I have free blocks. I have Solon Blocks. I have in-class time to do this, but as long as I’m at the school, I can’t. I look something up, I find a source, it’s blocked. I have to put things off until I’m at home, and I have little time to do school work outside of what designated time I have in class.

Now, it’s important to recognize that I don’t blame our staff or faculty for this. It was made in preparation for a statewide ban of cellphones in the schools that would be implemented this current year of 2026-2027 (Act 72 § 583). It’s the state legislature that’s really making these changes. And some of these are good changes, as I am of the mind that the initial phone bans were positive. But it’s starting to go too far.

The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Vermont School

Boards Association, the Vermont Independent School Association, and a

representative from the Vermont Coalition for Phone and Social Media Free

Schools, shall develop, and review at least annually, a policy to, subject to the

exceptions in subdivision (2) of this subsection, prohibit student use of cell

phones and non-school-issued personal electronic devices that connect to

cellular networks, the internet, or have wireless capabilities at school from

arrival to dismissal

— Pg. 26 of Act 072 as enacted 

This new policy has been incredibly frustrating considering that every class at the school requires computer use, if not every day, then at least once a week. There’s a double standard going on. Technology is pushed so hard by our curriculum and education, but any instances of personal use are banned and blocked. There are problems with our generation and technology addiction, but this is a sloppy way to go about fixing it.

This double standard has a lot more issues than just that. We can’t use our phones and personal computers, supposedly for our own benefit, but we are not benefiting from our only options being chromebooks and our grades revolving around Powerschool. Our education and personal information is being placed in the hands of Google, a predatory company, and Powerschool, a system that had previously been compromised in an ongoing case that lasted multiple years.

In December 2024, Powerschool was hacked and the personal data of students was stolen. Powerschool stated that your “name, contact information, date of birth, limited medical information, Social Security Number or Social Insurance Number, and other related information” had been compromised. Powerschool ended up paying a ransom to the hackers. What did they receive in exchange for this ransom? A video of the hacker deleting the stolen data. There is absolutely no evidence or way to verify that the hackers did not make backup copies, yet Powerschool considered the situation resolved.

Google, the well known company that provides student’s chromebooks, runs systems to track your engagement, habits, data, and schedules. They’re driven by a desire for profit, and push ads for their own products and others. This is the company that the school uses to provide our equipment and for our internet access.

So we’re not allowed to use our personal computers, yet the utilities that are used to facilitate our education actively compromise student’s personal data?

Besides a discussion of the companies that we trust our personal information with, there’s also a question of censorship. It comes to a point where so much is blocked that we only have access to a few specific sources. Keywords, specific sites, it all leaves a very narrow list of accessible information. Part of the appeal (and also horror) of the internet is the vast variety of viewpoints and options. When you take that away, it becomes a curated source that fails to provide an adequately wide set of choices. When does it go from a mere mild inconvenience to a real problem bordering on censorship?

There’s also the question of responsibility. How is this preparing us for the future? This is a short term solution for a likely permanent problem, we need to be taught how to regulate our internet usage, not have it forcibly restricted. We need to be educated on responsibility and maturity, told the right way to use our time and technology, not have options taken away. An office job sitting in front of a computer all day won’t have Youtube or key words blocked (at least not yet), we need to be taught how to stay focused for when we don’t have a teacher peering over our shoulder and making sure that we’re staying on task. How to get work done without being distracted by the appeal of goofing off on the infinite opportunities of laziness that the computer holds. We need to be taught responsibility over restriction.

I’ve written this article because I’m frustrated with the way things have ended up, and I know other students are as well. I think that some of these changes are well intentioned, but I also think that little of it is well thought out or positively implemented. It’s important to make your opinions heard. You are the subject of the decisions that are being made. You, the student body and faculty, are the people who will be affected. If you agree with my sentiment, it’s up to you to make sure that changes are recognized and made. We can complain and commiserate about this, or we can change it. Make your opinion known, make sure that your feedback is heard.