GoGuardian watches you, even after the dismissal bell
Photo Credit: Angelique Richardson
Administrators block netflix due to its ” inappropriate content” leaving students unable to watch, even at home.
November 30, 2018
Many schools across the United States have issued chromebooks or laptops to the student population to better help guide them toward educational goals. This gives students the opportunity to easily access their work. But, something that comes along with this is a paid program by the name of GoGuardian.
Administration
GoGuardian allows administrators to monitor and filter any Google powered device. The primary purpose is to keep students on track. But it also serves other purposes such as: catching warning signs, potential threats, and tracking missing devices. From an administrator’s perspective, I can see why this program does justice. You have the ability to keep everything under control to limit any mistakes.
There is even a mode of the program, Beacon, that specifically looks for struggling students. It searches for students that may be contemplating suicide or self-harm and seeks the help they need. This program keeps students, parents, and schools in a loop to put students first. Which is something I applaud, as paying attention to so many students can be difficult.
Students
On the other hand, through a students perspective, GoGuardian is downright disturbing and overpoweringly invasive even after school hours. While the district can block educationally disturbing websites, they also have the ability to watch screens, open tabs, and lock computers even after the dismissal bell. While some argue that this is for safety, it is also seen as a lack of trust. It is unfair to not allow students to use the device as a personal tool.
But, if they’re for the student to use, then why is it being so strictly controlled? Especially for students where this may be their only access to the internet at home, the purpose of the new device becomes convoluted.
Teachers
Teachers are on two different wavelengths in terms of liking and disliking the program. While it has its perks, it causes inconvenience when teachers have to monitor and lock screens. Sometimes teachers forget to unlock screens, preventing students from being able to do their work. Causing them to fall behind. Some teachers forgot to remove restrictions during the fall break which prohibited students from accessing other assignments, websites, etc.
I think this is a program, when done correctly and fairly between both students and teachers, can be beneficial. But it only works when both parties participate and are open. A policy should be put in place that teachers should not block or monitor students on Go Guardian after school hours. Students shouldn’t feel like “Big Brother” is always watching.
Recently, at a Woodbridge Township Board of Education meeting, students from Woodbridge High School and John F. Kennedy High School voiced their issues with Go Guardian as an invasion of privacy. Nothing was put in place to address the student’s complaints after the Board meeting. So, it is up to the teacher to establish and respect boundaries with their students until the District establishes some rules.

Angelique Richardson is a 17 year old Senior at Colonia High School. She enjoys spending free time reading, writing poetry, practicing music, and taking...
i need to get goguardian of my back
GoGuardian is stupid. It just blocks everything.
this is like Lanschool but equally worse
Yeah my school has it and I always sign out just so I can keep my privacy so go to your main
If it is the schools computer, the school has the right to monitor that device whether it is on campus or off campus. Use your own device to goof off.
As a teacher,I personally love GoGuardian it helps me spy on people thanks to its abillity to detect location and has access to camera and microphone.
As a teacher,I love goguardian.I can spy on students cause go guardian has access to location and camera microphone.I love annoying students with go guardian.
I don’t mind go guardian.
GoGaurdian is a disrespect of students privacy, I’ve had people show me its on their home computer and there teacher’s watch them on their own device and a non school account, THIS IS NOT OKAY!!
I really don’t understand why people hate it i get it its creepy and all but if your using a school device They have the rights to do anything but if its your personal device that is crossing the line thats the part when you use reverse card
I think this is stupid and a invasion of privacy. Teachers should not have the ability to lock devices and cheak history and close tabs. No one wants a teacher watching over them and cheaking everything they do
As a teacher, I believe I have too much power.
I don’t really know if GoGuardian is so bad, but I can’t go to non-school websites, even before I found out my password on my gmail account, because I had to do “Forgot Password”. The thing that really hits me is that when my BFF got locked out of her device in 2nd grade. Couldn’t GoGuardian do a timeout thing, and the teacher would set the time limit, and could turn it off when wanted??? Locking people out of their chromebooks just DOESN’T make sense. And if it locks me out of my iPad (which never happened), this thing should, but no offense, be BANNED for our safety.
Also but GoGuardian is stupid because
1st. It invades your privacy
2nd. They don’t let you go to already-blocked-websites during the weekend
3rd. It gets on some peoples home devices
Also:
My friend got locked out for a reason, which is fair, but what if the teacher forgets?
I still think there should be a lock-out-timer
I was a bit too crazy saying “BANNED” on my previous comment
Credits: Soliana (My old name), anonymous#123, Random, jowell, Timmy Baker
The end!
I think GoGuardian is stupid because when it watches you after the dismissal bell, that is just creepy watching you. UNLESS it is for a safe reason, such as unsafe websites, spam, inappropriate content, ect.
I think GoGuardian is stupid because in total from what students are saying, “I think this is stupid”, “GoGuardian is a disrespect of students privacy”, “GoGuardian is stupid. It just blocks everything.”
Credits are below of what I think if they are students are saying:
anonymous#123, Random, Timmy Baker
GoGuardian is kind of stupid, but not so fine at the same time
GoGuardian is fine to me
GoGuardian is mostly fine to me
its stupid its like teachers spy on you
I hate this app! I am a student in middle school, I cannot access ANYTHING FUN! And try to access youtube or reddit? For like 5 minutes. I will be scrolling through my feed, and I will get exited out of the tab with a notification: “GoGuardian- Your teacher has closed the tab.” SO YOU ARE WATCHING MY SCREEN WHILE IM AT HOME!?! STUDENTS NEED THEIR PRIVACY. LET ME LOOK AT YOUTUBE OR REDDIT WITHOUT CLOSING OFF THE TAB, PLEASE. THANK YOU.
Why was goguardian even made, kids feel condemned when it is used. It’s just downright disturbing.
I understand some things need to be monitored but now that almost everything is blocked I can no longer talk to my friends. 🙁
Speaking as a student, GoGuardian is sorta like a privacy invasion. But, don’t get me wrong, it is a school device. But being able to access a camera and microphone is a whole other level. Some students need privacy, now GoGuardian is supposed to help you stay focus, but including after dismissal? Students should be able to access what they want as long as it’s not inappropriate, I don’t have access to Youtube for example. But student’s voices have to be heard by the school board.
GoGuardian is great to monitor students so they focus. i dont think its a privacy issue because its the schools chromebook and school issued email addresses. after school hours its still a managed laptop by the school. like someone said earlier if your want to goof off, use another device.
Now I don’t know if your teachers can actually see through your camera, which would be very disturbing. And yes it is annoying how you can’t go on all websites, but on the other hand it is a school device, and it’s made for school related stuff only. I see why kids would want to go on games and other websites. But that’s not what school devices should be used for. I don’t think it’s ok that the teachers can watch your screen whenever they want. But you shouldn’t have a problem with Guardian if you’re actually using your school device for what it’s supposed to be used for
The students on here who are complaining about an invasion of privacy crack me up! Are you not sharing your entire lives on social media of some sort???
Now seriously, the part of this program that is helpful from my perspective is to be able to monitor tests, but do you honestly believe that as a teacher or as the administration, we watch you when the bell rings. If we want to do that, we’ll add you to our facebook pages, you’ll accept us, you accept everyone. We have lives kids. It’s okay. We’re not watching you, we’re grading your work. Oh, wait, maybe we don’t have lives…
I’d kinda understand if it was just school computers but it has become spyware on my personal chromebook, its to the point where im considering a fake account so i can just get around this crap
GoGuardian is annoying yes, but as someone who can use a personal computer I don’t have an issue, but I think it’s unfair and stupid they force people to install it on their personal devices, at that point its completely terrifying, If my computer was being controlled by someone it would be uncontrollably annoying, the school has a right to do it on their own devices, but not others, some of my friends are locked out of youtube, Reddit, etc on their personal computers.
I don’t like it. I get that GoGuardian is supposed to help us, but it is an invasion of our privacy. All of my teachers have said that it’s the same as them looking at your Chromebook in class. it’s not. The fact that they can now see what we’re typing, what we have been typing, see our browsing and search history, that’s not ok with us. Yes, yes, some of you might say, just use another device. But for some students, like me, this is our only way to access the internet, and since I don’t have a phone, the only way to contact my friends. One of my teachers said that anything we have typed on our Chromebooks is available, our history is available, tabs that we are not currently on are available, and pretty much anything on our computers is available. We may technically be kids, but especially now, when most of us are stuck inside with only our family, WE NEED OUR PRIVACY. Adults for some reason don’t seem to get that. I get that we need to do our work, but most of us get it done anyway, regardless of us listening to music or watching youtube. Actually, if you are a teacher at my school, or someone who works in the office, STOP READING. I find this to be an extreme invasion of our privacy, and I know other students do too.
One time, when I was doing homework at home, like at 9:00 PM, My teacher just closed my tabs and locked my chromebook for fun, Just to see how i react, and because of that, I had to miss 1 week of school and get a referral for not coming to school. And when I wanted to access my scchoolwork from my personal device, It said LOCKED, and a google metting popped up, and i tryed to close it, but it did not close. Then when i checked my mail, It said, “Why were you playing Madalin stunt 3 yesterday at 6:00 PM, And arent you too young to drink coffee?”GoGaurdian Just takes away your priyvacy at home, and I do not accept it.It even checks your room at home, which takes it away to a diffrent level, even in your personel divice. GoGaurdian and all other monitoring divices should be banned!!!
I personally hate GoGuardian. As a student with ADHD, I need to take little breaks here and there to focus properly. I used to do that by listening to music or watching short videos on YouTube. Ever since my school started using GoGuardian, they blocked Spotify, YouTube, Reddit, and a gazzilion other websites I use to not get distracted. I mean, I get that this Chromebook I am using is school property, but it is the only way I can access the internet for me. When I was doing e-learning after Christmas break, I would sometimes have to look up something on Google or watch a video explaining a concept to me further, but my teachers kept closing those tabs EVEN AFTER SCHOOL HOURS. This is just ridiculous and an invasion of privacy. GoGuardian is just another way to discourage students and have them get into trouble for the littlest things.
Tip for bypassing GoGuardian (this always works for me):
as soon as you open a “fun tab” on the weekend, open a bunch of other school related tabs to cover it up so your teacher doesn’t catch you
my teacher is so distrustfull of us that she thinks she hast to watch us. it’s scary. i cant even put on some music without her going, “ROWAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING.”
To be honest, it has gotten me pretty paranoid lately and I put a sticker on my webcam since I heard they can access your cameras and microphones. I mean I guess it’s fine but when after school hours are over and they are still watching your screen it can be quite unsettling and intimidating.