Students are provided with school email accounts that only allow emails to be sent and received by email accounts that are within the district or otherwise approved. While this is helpful to prevent misuse of email accounts and protect against dangerous spam, it also poses challenges.
Mrs. McCarthy notes, “We hit roadblocks when students need to send emails for curriculum and for other activities like clubs and class officers.” Students often find themselves needing to contact outside sources for school related reasons. For example, students in Publications often need to interview people for their articles. However, in order to get in contact with some people, like coaches or community members, they must use a personal email account.
Another area where communication with outside sources is limited by school email accounts is in activities like clubs and class officers. Members of clubs often need to get in contact with outside sources in order to get necessary information for the club. LEO Club officer Tia Adam states, “I can not send emails to Kutztown Printing for shirts for Publications or LEO club. I also can not email people in the community for volunteering information in LEO club. It really becomes a struggle then, because I have to use my phone for my other email account, and if it is when I am in school, then I can not do it and I have to wait.”
Shelby Dougherty, vice president of the senior class, faced similar challenges when trying to get class shirts and information for the class trip. She adds, “When it comes to class officer related business, I always have to use my personal email on my phone in order to get in contact with people for information.”
These limitations often cause complications and slow down progress within the classroom. Being both a teacher, club advisor, and class officer advisor, Mrs. McCarthy has seen first hand how counterproductive the limited email accounts can be. She comments, “Students are provided with a school email and computer for school related activities, yet have to use their personal emails and phones in order to communicate with outside sources. It slows things down, and then goes against rules set in place, like not using phones in school.”
Many students and teachers feel it would be beneficial to open up the email accounts to be able to send and receive outside emails, at least to some extent. Tia Adam notes, “Being able to email outside of the school would really benefit officers for classes and clubs, because they are the ones who have to email people in the community most often and have the most issues doing so. I understand that there needs to be limitations, but if there were a way to open up the emails for certain needs, then it would really help with communication for important tasks.” Being able to contact outside sources is a necessity for certain students who are involved in different classes, clubs, and activities. The email restrictions make it difficult for those students to complete their school related assignments and tasks. Allowing students to send and receive outside emails would benefit them, as they would be able to complete their work more efficiently and not need to use their phones and personal emails for school related activities.