‘Unapologetically loud’: How student journalists fought a Kansas district over spyware and won

By Sherman smith, Kansas Reflector

This article was originally published on Kansas Reflector.

When Lawrence Public Schools deployed spyware last fall, district officials said it would help them respond to a growing mental health crisis by monitoring students’ correspondence, photos, classwork and files.

But student journalists were alarmed by the First Amendment problems inherent with the district’s implementation of the surveillance program, made by Gaggle. As district officials dismissed the students’ concerns, they gathered evidence that Gaggle was failing in its core mission to protect students while violating their privacy and free speech rights.

And the four seniors who led the charge — Morgan Salisbury, Maya Smith, Jack Tell and Natasha Torkzaban — refused to be quiet about it.

“I think all four of us are unapologetically loud when it comes to situations like this,” Torkzaban said.