The Disconnect Effect

My high score on Google Chrome’s ‘no internet’ dinosaur game is 02391 — my VPN connection is down most nights when I begin my homework.

The spacebar dinosaur game is only available when your internet is down, which has helped me achieve such a high score.

East’s VPN is the cause of all of my late homework grades. Due to the fact that the VPN doesn’t connect right away unlike normal networks, I spend more time restarting my computer than actually doing my homework.

According to assistant principal Britton Haney, SMSD believed the VPN would be a helpful tool in ensuring that students are making responsible choices on their school computers. The network acts as a content blocker, blocking sites containing “social networking” and “content filtering.”

VPN is a virtual private network that most large private companies use to stop outsiders from breaking in and hacking their system. The network doesn’t allow your computer to connect to unsecured networks or public WiFis, making it nearly impossible to connect at Starbucks during a chem test cram session.

Most nights I am forced to restart my computer, hoping I won’t lose the 54 valuable tabs I have open for various projects and homework assignments. This is especially inconvenient as I don’t even get to my homework until 9 p.m. due to dance and afterschool activities.

Here’s a typical Monday night for me. I open my MacBook and click on the Google Chrome icon. My screen lights up, white and bright as can be, displaying the gray dinosaur as the dreaded ‘no internet’ words shine in my eyes. I sigh as my head rolls back. Pressing my spacebar I begin to play the dinosaur game hoping it will somehow help me to connect to wifi.

I refresh using the ‘command-r’ shortcut about a thousand times and watch as the blue line slowly moves across my computer only to show the same dinosaur game, until restart my computer — the last resort.

By the time I’ve entered my username and password, I am already 30 minutes behind on starting my homework. Some days I never connect, leaving my Conjuguemos and English paragraphs blank and my grade jumping halfway down the alphabet.

Most teachers are understanding of VPN issues and have been lenient with work turned in late due to uncontrollable internet problems. However, I am faced with the occasional, ‘You should’ve emailed me.’ I am baffled by how after I just explained to them that due to internet problems I couldn’t complete the homework they still wanted an email giving further notice.

Teachers have also started to decrease the amount of online homework because of the unreliable VPN. I believe that instead of getting rid of online homework and making our school computers unnecessary we should just get rid of VPN — the cause of the problem.

SMSD was doing just fine in terms of technology before Cisco VPN. Macbooks were first provided to high school students in 2013, hoping to make schoolwork easier for students and teachers. However, since SMSD installed Cisco VPN in 2016, they effectively undid their previous promise.

A popular feature for most VPN users is the ability to block certain websites. That is why sometimes after clicking on a website your screen will show “Cisco Umbrella” with a yellow triangle followed by the words, ‘this site is blocked due to content filtering’. There is a way to bypass the VPN blocking, but ironically, sites with information on how to do so are blocked by our VPN.

Even when doing research for a school project, I am faced with educational sites that are blocked due to our VPN. Even Cool Math Games is blocked! What’s up with that?

At dinner when my mom asks the obligatory question, ‘How’s your homework coming?’ I scoff — she knows I’m having VPN issues. Again. She obviously heard my screams from downstairs.

Most of the time when I face VPN issues, I reach for my personal computer. I probably do 70 percent of my school work on my own laptop. While it’s the exact same model as my school computer, there’s a big difference — no VPN.

While I am grateful for my personal computer, most kids are not able to do their school work on an alternate computer when faced with VPN problems. They’re stuck refreshing and resetting their computers until they can finally connect to the internet. When they are unable to connect, they have to face the uncompleted assignments and are forced to complete them at a later date for half-credit.

Even though school is the only place our computers can connect, most students aren’t in the school library till 9 p.m. doing their homework mainly because it is closed.

To give it credit, VPN does a great job of blocking hackers, websites and our ability to do homework. The lock on the Cisco logo suggests a secured network but the more I look at it, the more it feels like a lock on my “no internet” prison cell.

While VPN was intended to help us, it has ended up hurting us. Getting this network for the sole purpose of blocking ‘inappropriate’ sites, such as online clothing stores selling swimsuits, has in return caused chaos in the homework department.

The sites were originally blocked to keep us from being distracted from our school work— but the real distraction is the fact that I can’t connect to the internet to do my school work.

I feel that I have been faced with the loading sign more often than the website I am trying to connect to.

Most of my teachers have started to decrease the amount of online homework because of the unreliable VPN. I believe that instead of getting rid of online homework and making our school computers unnecessary we should just get rid of VPN — the cause of the problem.
At this point, I start to wonder if VPN really stands for very poor network. I guess I’ll just go back to trying to dinosaur game. Here’s to a score of 02392. Sorry, it’s now 04768. Thanks for that at least, VPN.