Administrators scale back after faulty debut of Hāpara filter

Students have disliked the controlling nature of the computer monitoring system GoGuardian since its inception. However, with the recent adoption of Hāpara, students at Oshkosh West have become enraged with the blockage of more sites and the open access teachers and administrators now have to their Google Drive accounts. Oshkosh West is piloting the new software for the district, which resulted in scaled back use due to filtering that interrupted classwork. Students around the school, including junior Amelia Bell, are worried about what the adoption of the program means.

“I am worried that if my school account is connected to my phone, the school can see my camera roll, and I don't want my personal or family life being shown to the administrators,” she said.

Students do not want to face school consequences for online activity outside of school. However, Hāpara is not able to take information from students' personal phones, and it can only connect to district owned devices, according to district Director of Technology Jason Schmidt. 

“Hāpara only connects to the chromebook or other computers when signed in,” he said. “The school is only allowed to see what is on your school email even when signed in to other devices.”

Complaints of the issues with the new application ring through almost every classroom, such as continuing to block sites even after that particular class period has ended, blocking many helpful school programs, and restricting access to nearly all websites outside of a few school resources. Bell encounters these problems.

“My computer has been crashing between switching classes,” she said. “Sometimes the restrictions from previous classes will also appear in other classes, and it's really annoying.”

Junior Jazbia Farooq has also found himself burdened with difficulties of the new system. 

“At first, I felt really overwhelmed and frustrated because of the blocking of random apps, and it was very different,” she said. “I was scared at what the teachers could see and the invasion of privacy I felt. I also don’t like that any teacher at any time can see our Google Drive.”

Like GoGuardian, Hāpara features a system called Deledao for filtering inappropriate content on school devices. However, Deledao is much more sensitive about what content students should have limited access to and has blocked Google searches related to classroom study topics like sports betting, sex trafficking, and artists who have made pieces featuring nude subjects. Erin Quesnell-Jobs, a Spanish teacher at West, feels that Deledao’s effort to manage content on school devices has the effect of restricting student learning. 

“Recently, I had a student attempt to do some of their own research into what pronouns are used in Spanish by Spanish speakers who are gender non-conforming, and their search was blocked on the basis of it having to do with sexuality,” she said. “This is a legitimate query that this student had. They're trying to learn the language; they're trying to know how to effectively use pronouns.”

It will take time to fully transition to Hāpara, and until that happens, students will have to be patient with the school until they figure out the ins and outs of the new software. Quesnell-Jobs recognizes that the school decided to reinstitute some GoGuardian features amid a rocky transition.

“Teachers were informed May 7 that, while we will continue to use Hāpara for monitoring, the actual filtering system will no longer be used,” she said. “Basically, the reasoning that was given was something along the lines of, ‘we're encountering issues with the filter.’”

According to Schmidt, the district is actively trying to fix problems reported by students and staff and has worked to change the amount of restriction taking place over the past few weeks. 

“The philosophy with Hāpara is really about trying to help teach you to be responsible,” he said. “Instead of blocking sites immediately, there will eventually be a prompt at times asking the student if they should be visiting that website. There will be a few things like that we will do once it is fully set up and implemented.” 

The debate over whether teachers should have access to students’ school Google Drives is also flaring up around Oshkosh West. Most students feel as though their privacy has been invaded; however, there are potential advantages to this increased access, according to Quesnell-Jobs.

“Theoretically, if a student is missing an assignment, I could theoretically enter their Drive so that, rather than giving them a zero, I could grab the assignment from their drive,” she said.

With their busy schedules, teachers are unlikely to search through students’ Drives, especially if they are not searching for a specific assignment. Quesnell-Jobs is reluctant to use the feature even for these uses.

“I feel that, if you have your Drive, that's your work. That's your kind of space where you keep your thoughts, you curate your own work and thought processes, so I don't feel that that's for my eyes,” she said. “If a student doesn't turn something in, I feel like that is on the student to then connect with me later and work out a way that they can still turn in the assignment rather than me going to the back end and searching for their drives or something.”

It is hoped that, in time, Hāpara will have features that make it easier for teachers to claim their students in their classes and end restrictions from other classes, Schmidt explains.

“The teacher in front of you will be able to claim you as their student, and it will automatically end other restrictions, and also being able to access resources that are not available to them as some students don't always share access,” he said.

West’s administrative team hopes that Hāpara will benefit staff and students in the long run. Schmidt points out that students worried about privacy violations should be more concerned about the access they give to unknown parties on personal devices than the access the school has to their school Google Drives.

“We will only filter devices we own,” he said. “If students are concerned about being monitored, they should be worried about some of the social media apps, such as sharing your location on Snapchat or Instagram and letting apps have access to your camera.”

Another question many have expressed is why the Oshkosh Area School District is exploring a new computer monitoring system now. Schmidt describes that the school decided to look at other opportunities as their contract with GoGuardian was reaching its conclusion.

“The contract with GoGuardian is coming to an end, and everytime that happens, we evaluate our options, which is part of our natural process,” he said. 

Although many students are facing technology issues at the moment, it is hoped the problems will be solved quickly. Quesnell-Jobs affirms that, despite current frustrations, it is important for the school to have some sort of monitoring system in place. 

“From the functionality standpoint, it has not quite delivered in the way that I think teachers would be looking for it to,” she said. “Really the big thing is we want to make sure that students are on task and that students are completing work we want them to be completing.”

by Mariah Peterson and Aria Boehler

Published May 19th, 2025

Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue VIII