This editorial represents the opinions of 14 out of 14 Outlook editors
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In early February, Discord was blocked on all the school wifi networks, prohibiting student access to the platform while they are at school. While we as the Outlook acknowledge and appreciate the district’s attempts to reduce distractions in school settings, blocking Discord is ultimately more harmful than helpful.
“Discord is a very unique platform where we can connect with other students [and] mentors, and there’s a lot of structure there that has become integral to all of our organizations,” said sophomore Emily Ma. “For Robotics, this is a platform we’ve been growing for years. There are links and other important pieces embedded into the system … that we don’t want to lose … Sometimes there are last-minute updates that people need to know about … People get distracted by Discord, but that’s the same as with any other communication channel … People can still chat with their closest couple of friends on messages or find some other way.”
Many clubs and other student-run organizations use Discord as their primary method of communication — the Aragon High School Discord hub alone houses 53 student-led servers. Whether it’s coordinating meeting times, sending out announcements or project collaboration, Discord serves as a way for students to speak with each other more easily and efficiently.
“Just a couple days after [Discord] was blocked, one of the mentors on Robotics tried to reach out to me, and I knew because I saw the notification pop up on my phone screen, but when I tapped it and went to Discord, I couldn’t find anything,” Ma said. “And that was a bit stressful, because the mentors aren’t here during the school day, and I don’t have any other way of contacting them besides Discord.”
When we’re considering how large student organizations are and their need for organized communication, not being able to correspond during the school day or even shifting to other platforms is simply unfeasible. Regardless of the potential for distraction, Discord is ultimately a platform many students use for beneficial collaboration.
