Snapchat is Back

Snapchat is back. Now, I’m not here to preach to you all about your social media presence. I’m not here to change your intentions of every single post to an inspirational quote (although that would be pretty awesome.) And I’m not here to gossip anymore about what happened a few months ago, which resulted in the blocking of Snapchat on our school’s internet server. All I’m here to do is to give you the clear explanation you deserve. As we all know, Snapchat has been blocked on our internet server for a while now. For a reason. It was never intended to be blocked for as long as it was. This was more of a consequence than a solution for our actions. No one was sure how far the problems with SnapChat would go – so this was the only alternative. It’s not our schools’ process to block sites. The thing is, this wasn’t just affecting the 8th graders – the only Middle Schoolers who are permitted to have Snapchat on their iPads, and use it out of school hours. This affected the High School and families on campus as well. But who was responsible? It was us. Not the High Schoolers. Not the families on campus. It was us. So was this really fair? Other solutions could’ve been to block Snapchat until next year, or remove the app for 8th graders indefinitely. But this would’ve shown that our school doesn’t trust us 8th graders. And the thing is: they do. They trust that we can learn from our mistakes, and with that in mind, we can prevent them from ever happening again. They trust us to make good, necessary decisions that don’t intend on inflicting harm or hurt on anyone. They trust us to be responsible global citizens, both on and offline. And with this trust, they’re willing to give us another chance. So from here on out this afternoon, let’s prove our school made the right decision to trust us once more. We deserve a chance. You deserve a chance. We’re not going back again. #AwESome