GoGuardian was first adopted by the Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) in the 2017-18 school year, allowing teachers to monitor students' devices, close out tabs and lock computer screens through district-provided accounts during class time. This online educational service has helped maintain focused classrooms and academic honesty. However, despite its various proven benefits, some students and teachers have voiced concerns about its limitations and the scope of its surveillance.
The TUHSD Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Kelly Lara, who has over 20 years of educational experience, is responsible for managing and supporting students and their education.
“Our GoGuardian system allows a teacher to monitor when students are in class. They can monitor what website [the students are] looking at, provide support and redirect [them],” Lara said.
This software is used by over 14,000 schools and districts, according to GoGuardian. It allows teachers to view their students' school-issued Google Chrome accounts while the student is on either a school-provided Chromebook or their personal computer.
Lindsey Kornfeld, a history and social issues teacher, also considers GoGuardian to be a helpful tool to keep her students focused. She especially appreciates the task report feature and the ability to block certain websites or force-close tabs.
“It sends off task reports. So if someone's not in a document they're supposed to be in, it'll just flag on my computer screen, and I can redirect them,” Kornfeld said.
She also said teachers can access a student’s browsing history when GoGuardian runs. Although this has proven helpful in maintaining a focused learning environment, many students have expressed complaints about the technology. In the January survey put out by Bark, 70 percent of students said they had minor or significant concerns about their privacy when using school devices or accounts.
Senior Mirabelle Glassman is one of the students worried about her online privacy when using her school account on her personal computer.
“I was [at] home sick, and [my teacher] had GoGuardian on for the people taking the test [in class]. I couldn't go into any other tab because I was on my school account,” Glassman said.
The teachers’ student roster from Synergy transfers over to the GoGuardian portal, where they can turn on monitoring for that class period at any time of the day. Multiple teachers can view a student’s screen at one time.
Rose Chavira, the TUHSD Senior Director of Information Technology, manages all technology across the entire district and spoke about why GoGuardian was first introduced into classrooms.
“We implemented [GoGuardian] because the teachers needed some way of monitoring the class. Imagine being a teacher and trying to support [over] 25 students in a room. [Teachers can] get around to some of them, but maybe need to keep an eye on what others are doing,” Chavira said.
New English teacher Raquel Fay frequently uses GoGuardian to help manage her senior and sophomore English classes during tests and work time. She often creates “Scenes”, a feature on GoGuardian that specifies which websites students can access and monitors screens during tests or in-class essays, ensuring students are academically honest.
“Especially for [Advanced Placement] classes, we have to mimic test settings, and it's easy to put [GoGuardian] on, [which] limits what people can access, and also [makes] sure people aren't using ChatGPT,” Fay said.
She also mentioned that the service only sometimes notifies students that a teacher is actively watching. Moreover, Fay noticed that when she turns on monitoring for a class, she can see students’ screens even when they are at home, as long as they are logged in to their district-provided account.
“Sometimes, if a student is absent [when] I turn on GoGuardian because we're taking a test, and they are catching up on classwork or whatever it is, their personal tabs will pop up if they're logged in through their school account,” Fay said.
Although many students acknowledge that GoGuardian can be a beneficial tool, there have been multiple incidents when a teacher unknowingly turns GoGuardian on for students who are off school campus, disrupting their work at home. Glassman mentioned that her teacher locked her browser while she was at home sick, so she could not open any other tabs.
“When I was home, I couldn't work during that period,” Glassman said.
Junior Gia Meyers had a similar encounter with GoGuardian. She is among the 53 percent of Redwood students who have experienced or heard about this service being used off-campus, according to the same January Bark survey.
“I was in [Las] Vegas for a softball tournament and doing my homework because I had free time. I was watching Netflix on the side after I finished my homework, and [my teacher] closed my tab. I was all the way in [Las] Vegas,” Meyers said.
Not only do students feel like it can be an inconvenience when they are using their school accounts outside of school, but it can also feel like a violation of their privacy.
“I was really weirded out in [Las] Vegas because I was [thinking], ‘I'm not even that close to school or anything.’ So that felt uncomfortable for me,” Meyers said.
On the students' screen, a GoGuardian message is supposed to pop up to make students aware that the software is on and watching their window, but this feature doesn’t always work; often, students aren’t aware that they are being monitored. Glassman felt her privacy was violated when her teacher began closing tabs and opening others while she was at home.
“It scared me. I was freaked out and shut off my computer,” Glassman said.
The GoGuardian website states that “students who are absent can be excluded from your classroom session with the ‘Exclude’ command. This command will temporarily hide the student from your Screens and Timeline views.” TUHSD does not use this feature.
GoGuardian is meant to be used for students on campus and in their classrooms, specifically for students taking tests or working on school assignments. Each school district has different limitations on the GoGuardian portal.
“In the previous district I was in, it would never show someone at home. They had to be logged in on the school Wi-Fi,” Fay said.
According to the GoGuardian website, “Schools and districts that partner with us control their own settings — such as where and when GoGuardian's services are active, and which websites are on- and off-limits when using GoGuardian Admin.”
On Jan. 16, Kornfeld mentioned she could use GoGuardian at night, but she did not ever want to do so. Sometime since then, TUHSD has turned on a setting that prevents it from operating for teachers outside of school hours. However, it seems as though there is nothing to protect students’ privacy when off campus during school hours, as they are still surveilled by GoGuardian.
When monitoring browsers are brought to a school district, teachers are to be informed and provided with training, as they have done at Kent Middle School.
“Teachers get professional development training on how to use GoGuardian. After their training, they know how to use the system,” Lara said.
However, according to Fay, Kornfeld and other staff members, Redwood teachers have not received any formal training or guidelines on the software. Kornfeld reflected that teachers are expected to know how to utilize this monitoring service, despite not receiving instruction on proper use of the software.
“It comes to us as mandatory reporters and public educators to use technology the way that it's designed to be used, which is in class,” Kornfeld said.
GoGuardian has proven to be successful for a variety of reasons. However, the security and privacy regarding its setting and features have made students and teachers uncomfortable. Any student or parent concerned about their online privacy regarding GoGuardian cannot access the general TUHSD privacy policy because it comes up blank on the district website.
In terms of the legality behind the use of monitoring services, the TUHSD Student Use of Technology Acceptable Use Agreement states that “the district reserves the right to monitor and record all use of district technology.” “District technology” includes district-owned equipment or devices on district-owned Google Chrome accounts and online platforms through a TUHSD account, whether accessed on or off-site. It states that students “should not have any expectation of privacy.” However, there is little information that educates students, parents and teachers specifically about how GoGuardian is utilized at Redwood. The TUHSD website only states, "GoGuardian software helps schools easily manage their devices, better understand their students and keep them safer online.”
Despite GoGuardian’s benefits to learning at TUHSD, concerns from many Redwood students suggest the need for change — such as a setting preventing it from operating for off-campus devices during excused absences — so that it still serves its purpose without prompting any privacy or safety concerns.