Students’ videos no longer play. Instead, they see messages about their internet connection. Photo credit: Stripe Chronicle Staff.

One day, TikTok went black. Confusion followed. “I thought it was my wifi that was broken,” explains 10th grader Ellie. Devastation and disappointment swept the student body. 11th grader Chase felt, “devastated, I love using TikTok, it’s my favorite app.” Other TikTok users, like 10th grader Caitlin, shared, “I was disappointed,” and feelings of mistrust grew, “[admin] should have told us first.”

The origins are more mundane. Mr. Martinez, the Assistant Director of Technology, says the banning of the app was “network management.” Mr. Hamilton, the Network Administrator, explains that TikTok was identified as demanding the most bandwidth in daily surveys, “because it’s not a school sanctioned app, [the tech department] determined that it was using way too much bandwidth during the day, so we just turned it off.” 

Ellie shares that the tech departments’ change to the network bothered her because, “when I have to stay after school, I sometimes don’t have homework, so I can spend my time watching TikTok.” Ultimately not being notified of the decision, “led to a lot of confusion with students,” as Ellie reveals.

Ben, 10th grade, trying to use TikTok in a designated cell phone area. Photo credit: Abby Vadai.

However teachers have different reactions to the banning of TikTok on school WiFi. Mr. Reynolds acknowledges that he does not have much interaction or knowledge about the app, but shares, “if it is kids filming themselves dancing and if that’s the case, then yeah, I don’t think it should be in school.” 

However, Ms. Krauss, Director of Student Support, feels very strongly that TikTok is, “brain poison,” and is glad that it is gone–regardless of the reasoning.

In terms of the network, Mr. Reynolds acknowledges that, “there are times I have been like, ‘why isn’t the wifi working?’,” and thinks that, “if there were kids watching videos or streaming something that might, when we are all using the same wifi, be something that slows it down.” 

According to the tech office, the goal of banning TikTok was to alleviate Wifi-related issues that are occurring within the school. TikTok in particular was banned because, “if the bandwidth is all used by tik tok, people that have to actually do school work can’t do schoolwork because it’s really slow if you all are TikTok-ing,” explains Ms. Tar, Registrar and Technology Support Manager.