The media center has been dealing with a problem of students stealing laptops. On Dec. 10, Media center specialist Beth Shapiro, sent out a staff-wide email asking teachers to reinforce to their students that students must return laptops after the block that they use them and that they are not permitted to bring them home overnight.
According to the email, there have been a number of problems regarding students, freshmen especially, taking laptops home and not returning them.
“One of the staff members in the media center discovered two freshmen who were pulling out school laptops from their backpacks,” Shapiro said. “She talked to them and found out word was going around that freshman were thinking it was ok to take home a laptop overnight if you didn’t finish a school assignment.”
Freshman Dharti Patel has had similar experiences with students taking laptops.
“I’ve never [stolen a laptop], but I’ve definitely seen a student who just took a laptop without checking it out and the librarians had to chase after him and yell at him,” Patel said. “I think it’s just because no one wants to wait in the really long lines for computers.”
Patel refers to the changes in the media center check out process that were instituted last year which created very long lines when classes check out laptops.
Shapiro said the media center implemented this method so that lines would become shorter, not longer.
“It’s different because before this year the librarian technicians held the laptops behind the counter and checked them out to you,” junior Madison Wright said. “This year they just expect you to take one off a cart and check it out yourself. Freshmen are probably confused because they never went through it.”
Patel feels on top of the confusion, some students take laptops home because of lack of computer access.
“I think students take them home because they need them for projects and they don’t have a computer at home, but I definitely don’t think it’s necessary for them to steal,” Patel said. “They should just work it out with their teachers.”
The media center also has implemented ted different solutions to students who don’t have computer access at home.
“We open [the media center] before school starts at 4:30, and we don’t close till five,” Shapiro said. “There’s no reason students should be taking them.”
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Case of the missing computers
December 14, 2015
The RBHS media center has been dealing with a problem of students stealing laptops. (Feature photo by Kat Sarafianos)
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Commenter • Jan 1, 2016 at 12:30 am
I never understood at all how the new system is supposed to speed up laptop lines, because it takes the same amount of time for the student to go to a cart, pick out a laptop, and check it out themselves as it did before. The only change is that the librarians have to do less physical work, which I would have no issue with if it didn’t result in this problem of disappearing laptops, which honestly, doesn’t surprise me at all.
As high school students, we SHOULD be mature and honest enough to be trusted with open access to laptops in this system, but quite frankly, that’s very unrealistic. I see students take laptops without checking them out on the regular, regardless of whether they know the policy– in other words, it is not just confused freshmen who are doing this. I don’t buy the “confused freshman” excuse in the first place, because even elementary- or middle school-aged kids should know fully well that public items are meant for everybody to use and must be checked out and returned. Also, from the wording of this article, the issue of stolen laptops is major, so these students aren’t just taking them home long enough to finish an assignment or two, they’re keeping them.
I think media center specialists should have reverted back to the old system as soon as they caught whiff of the stealing, which would’ve prevented the problem from progressing to this point. But I realize that at this point it is too late for words of regret. To stop the problem from getting even worse, they should revert back to the old system of handing out laptops the first day we’re back from break, and figure out a way to hunt down the missing laptops. If the latter can’t be achieved, then I guess the school will just be out on thousands of dollars due to the irresponsibility of Rock Bridge students. At least a lesson can be learned.
Somebody Else • Dec 21, 2015 at 8:06 am
Close at 5? Every time I’ve tried to stay after school to work on a project the media center specialists begin to kick us out 15-30 minutes before that. And frankly, is it that useful to open the library that early when so many of our students arrive at school by bus? When going to check out laptops, you never know if what you’re getting will actually work. Sometimes, the computers just sit there, logging you on indefinitely. I’ve had to return two laptops 15 minutes into class when we were supposed to be writing an essay. other times, you log on only to find out your battery’s at 7% and unless you want your work to be lost into the abyss of computer data, you have to go back to library and the insanely long lines. The lines are so long that teachers tell us the class before to get laptops in an effort to have us back in class on time (it never works). I’ll agree that students shouldn’t be disregarding the media center’s policy about laptops so callously, but I will say that the policy needs to change to become more accommodating to students who don’t have computer access at home.
Somebody • Dec 17, 2015 at 8:14 pm
With no regulation there can’t be expectation.
Leaving laptops for students to pick up and relying on them to check them out themselves doesn’t do much good. Students who do go through the expected process are obviously not planning on swindling a laptop from the Media Center. However, for those students who do take laptops during times or to places where they aren’t supposed to, either due to misunderstanding or real malice intent, are less likely to go through the check out process. From my understanding of the laptop checkout system, a student that hypothetically takes a laptop won’t be held responsible for it since there is no way to trace the missing computer back to a student who just never checked it out. So…that’s not great.
In other news, Star Wars was fantastic.