Snapped Up

Some students and teachers may go to open the blue and white app known as GroupMe to message for a club, but then have to switch to the orange and white sport-focused app called TeamSnap. 

“We’re going to Teamsnap as an organization because there’s less opportunity for shenanigans going on between teachers and students, and students and students,” stated Mr. Ketcham.

Jefferson County had multiple reports of incidents between teachers and students involving inappropriate language. Each school had to transition to something with trackable messages for child safety, which led to JA using Teamsnap. Many students don’t like using Teamsnap and use alternative methods to communicate with their clubs.

“Mal and I honestly created a group chat on the school Gmail accounts because the school can still monitor that, and it just makes more sense to me,” explained Jayden Hughes, a senior here at JA.

There are obviously other options than Teamsnap that can be used, such as Gmail or Canvas. Many people agree that the use of Teamsnap isn’t convenient for many clubs, but it is a necessary transition for the safety of students.

“I think it protects kids,” Dr. Schultz, our principal, elaborated. “If a teacher texts you or does something outside of the communication that we allow, it doesn’t protect the kids. I want the students protected, so I want to be able to track anything.”

It’s very important to keep kids safe always. Cybersecurity is a crucial part of that, and the county is trying its best to protect kids online through these new policies. As annoying as Teamsnap can be with the constant ads, paywalls, and strictly sport-friendly content, it is a reasonable transition. An understandable question for this would be: “Why initiate the change now?” Child safety has always been at risk without change, so why hasn’t this happened earlier? 

“Somebody in the administration of JeffCo got busted for sending inappropriate information to kids, and because of that, all the schools want to make sure that they can keep an eye on all of the information in case something like this happens,” clarified Mr. Ketcham.

There’s the obvious fact that this solution isn’t perfect, and most solutions won’t be perfect. This transition might help with the problem, but the problem will persist. A good solution is often found in ‘the sweet spot,’ and an anonymous source who is a parent and club leader at JA explains this well.

“[We need] to find the sweet spot that allows for safe and appropriate use of all platforms available,” said an extracurricular leader, who wished to stay anonymous.

Ms. Sorice doesn’t have a vast knowledge of the transition, but as the club leader of Mock Trial, she shows concern about the lack of flexibility the transition holds. Katie Proctor, a senior at JA, sums this up pretty well.

“I think the transition was reasonable, just because I do understand the need for traceability on school messaging platforms. However, I do not think the switch should have been made to TeamSnap,” explained Proctor. “As someone who has used it in the past for sports communications, it is not very user-friendly, has tons of advertisements, and often takes a while to load. I feel like, as a school, more research should have been done to see what other platforms are appropriate for the school, but are also user-friendly.”