Teens Don’t Need No Thought Control

Avery Schromm did not want to be surveilled.

Her charter school in California implemented an updated laptop policy in January that required students to do schoolwork using school-issued Chromebooks, which had monitoring software installed, exclusively inside and outside the classroom. “Administrators reserve the right to examine, use and disclose any data found on the school’s networks in order to further the health, safety, discipline or security of any student or other person, or to protect property,” the new policy stated. In other words: You should have no expectation of privacy.

Schromm, who is 17 and a senior, told me that what bothered her the most was how abruptly the new policy was rolled out, with too little regard for student and parent input. So she decided to take action. The night the policy........

© The New York Times