District 65 Limits Student Access to Change.org
I'm back and I've got a petition for you to sign (just kidding)
While local news writes about very serious things happening at District 65, including the outcome of Monday’s meeting - ‘You’re insolvent’: Consultants sound fiscal alarm in District 65 proposals or D65 teachers protest lack of new contract. 1
I’ve been working on a story much more petty: petitions. 2
You’ll never catch me signing one but Evanstonians do love petitions. In fact, a search on change.org for “Evanston” shows 185 petitions. There were two of them added last week - one related to Bessie Rhodes and another related to the move to standards-based grading;
Restore Traditional Grading in District 65 (Posted October 18, 2024)
Halt the Closure of 7th and 8th Grade Sections at Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies (Posted October 19, 2024)
Both petitions were getting some traction with hundreds of signatures for each. The Bessie Rhodes one has over 500 signatures as of this writing.
The Ban
Six days later on October 25th, District 65 banned access to change.org from District resources. Here is the email sent to parents, which I have clipped below.
Hello 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Parents/Caregivers,
The message below was sent to students this evening. We ask for your partnership in helping us keep our students safe!
We want to recognize and commend your efforts to use technology as a tool to share your voices and express your perspectives on important topics in our school community. Your ability to collaborate, organize, and advocate for what matters to you is inspiring.
Why Change.org was Blocked on District Devices
Recently, some of you used Change.org to create a petition. This website allows users to share videos and names publicly, which can be seen by anyone on the internet. When using district-issued devices and our network, it’s important that the tools and websites you access protect your Personal Identifiable Information (PII), such as your name, email, location, or any personal videos. Currently, we don’t have a data privacy agreement with Change.org, so your names, videos, and other details can be viewed by people beyond our district community.
This raises privacy concerns, especially since Change.org allows anyone on the internet to view and interact with your personal information. For this reason, access to Change.org has been blocked on the district’s student network and devices.
This seemed pretty wild to me and potentially an attempt to suppress protected speech, so I reached out to the District for comment, which I have included below. They do note that this change only impacts the student network.
Change.org has been blocked on our student network, meaning students can’t access it on district-issued devices, even outside of school. Staff and adults retain full access.
In compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) we use tools to monitor student internet usage and ensure safe browsing. The Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA) also requires us to have data privacy agreements with any websites used by students that collect personal information.
On Friday, we became aware that middle school students were sharing a Change.org petition created by an 8th grader via email. After reviewing the petition, we noted that students had to provide personal identifiable information (PII)—like full names, location, and email addresses—to create, sign and engage with the petition. Some students even posted personal videos in the comments.
Change.org was not approved for use by students in our Google Admin console, meaning that students would not have the ability to "log-in with Google." However, they were able to add any email address and create an account without an email verification. Since we do not have a data privacy agreement for Change.org protecting student PII, we made the decision to block the platform solely on the student network in order to safeguard student information and ensure compliance with CIPA and SOPPA.
We informed 6th-8th grade students and their families of this decision, highlighting safer alternatives such as Google Forms and Padlet for student-driven petitions and expression within a more secure environment.
I reached out to change.org for comment, which I have included below.
We appreciate that the District's message highlights the importance of responsible digital citizenship and advocacy, which we also deeply value at Change.org. While we comply with applicable data privacy regulations and are a voluntary participant of the CARU COPPA Safe Harbor Program, Change.org is a general audience site, meaning it is for users 13 years and older in the US. When notified of any users who are under 13, we abide by COPPA-compliant processes to have the user confirm their legal guardian's consent for their participation on the platform or to delete their account and all data.
Follow-up Note
I had a hard time deciding whether to publish this story - it touches on free speech issues but at the same time, as both the District and change.org point out - there are some complicated student privacy compliance issues here. I decided to post the story anyway - I do think it’s newsworthy, even if it just clears the air on rumors.
In other news, the FOIA deadline to send me a copy of the Grossi memo is today, so you may all get another story this evening. In addition, I’m almost through all my professional deadlines, so you’ll get more stories in the coming weeks and months.
Feel free to use the comment section to discuss these issues. I have some stories coming out on this stuff too, but I’ve got a big backlog right now between my day job and the work here.
Any kind of first amendment story like this is Tom bait
I don’t care that they have blocked change.org, but let’s be clear that the District’s technology policy is clearly not focused on safety for kids.
I’ve yet to hear a pedagogical reason for issuing iPads to elementary school kids.
The security reports I get on their use show that the bulk of the time they seem to be using it to watch inappropriate videos on YouTube.
None of the ’learning’ apps do anything more than a book or worksheet might do and the devices cause nothing but friction since the kids want to play games on them when they are home.
There is lots of evidence to suggest limitations on screen time is wise for kids yet the district embraces them without any critical assessment as far as I can ascertain.
OK, I’m pretty well known for not trusting a damn thing D65 does, but given the age of the students that have district devices, blocking sites that require PII from students on the district network and devices seems like it’s well on the right side of the allowable line. IOW, this doesn’t offend me.
ETA: as a for instance, my kid is a sophomore at ETHS (thank god they’re out of D65 now), and their ETHS email address is only reachable by other ETHS email addresses…and that seems perfectly fair to me.