How Students and Parents Can Lawfully Protest and Fight Back Against Invasive School Surveillance
Despite the enormous body of concern connected to systems like Gaggle, the Berkeley Heights BOE approved Gaggle to monitor student content on school devices and school accounts. Students and parents can still push back lawfully.
What NOT to do:
- Do not attempt to hack Gaggle or disable filters.
- Do not bypass school security tools while using school devices or school networks.
- Do not tamper with school devices.
- Do not use VPNs or bypass tools on school devices or school networks.
- Do not threaten or harass teachers, administrators, peers or anyone else.
- Do not disrupt class.
What you CAN and SHOULD do:
- Use personal devices and personal accounts to complete work and communicate with peers as much as possible, consistent with school rules.
- Do not treat school email, school documents or school messaging services as private. They may be monitored and, if flagged, reviewed by people who are not part of our community.
- Use personal devices and personal accounts for creative work, personal writing, organizing, journalism or anything you do not want screened, flagged or misread.
- Attend BOE meetings and organize with other families. Collective voices carry more weight at BOE meetings than individual complaints.
- Write op-eds.
- Wear apparel expressing your opposition to systems like Gaggle. Under the Supreme Court’s Tinker standard, students retain their First Amendment rights at school as long as their expression is peaceful and does not cause a substantial disruption to school operations.
- Review the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Student Handbook signed at the start of the year to check for specific data privacy disclosures or opt-out clauses.
- Document false flags. If your child is flagged or questioned for completely innocent schoolwork, creative writing, or health searches, safely log the context and details immediately. Real-world examples of system failures are vital for showing the BOE how these tools harm the educational environment.
- Ask the district to publish the Gaggle policy, the contract, the alert process, the data-retention rules and the process for challenging false flags.
- Parents can submit OPRA requests connected to Gaggle records and information involving their child where legally available, especially after an incident or alert. Student records may involve additional privacy rules, but parents should not be afraid to ask for records and explanations. Because New Jersey law requires the government to pay your legal fees if you win an OPRA lawsuit, many OPRA attorneys will take your case at no upfront cost to you. If you need an attorney for OPRA issues, we can provide several who work on contingency.
The District approved Gaggle, but students and parents can still push back.
Please let us know about the issues you’ve experienced with your school’s surveillance system.