The Removal of Students’ Profile Pictures

As you may have already noticed, the tech department removed students’ Google profile pictures and replaced them with the standard default: a picture of the users’ first initial with a flat and dull background color. Initially, I thought that there was some sort of accident with the tech department that would simply be resolved in a matter of days. However, Dr. Walker informed the school in an email that the removal was, in fact, intentional as some students were displaying obscene and inappropriate images in their profile pictures. You would expect that the students who set such images were to be the only ones restricted, but, because the tech department is unable to track who is displaying what on their profiles at any given time, they decided to remove it altogether.

Prior to Dr. Walker’s email, the majority of the student body expressed confusion and concern regarding this matter. Some students were unaware that the profile pictures were even removed in the first place, and many more felt upset by the change. For example, one student wrote:

“I was matching profile pictures with 2 other friends, and it kinda sucked to get that taken away. I understand why they’re taken away, though—people could easily abuse that privilege. I just don’t want to have a boring profile picture for 4 more years.” 

Moreover, some felt indifferent and claimed that it wasn’t really a big deal for them. However, some joked and made references to George Orwell’s 1984 and the American Revolution. Among the students, one utilized their U.S.  history expertise on the issue, declaring:

“I feel as though my individuality has been stripped from me. As a student at Chatham High School, I exercise my first amendment rights to keep my own opinions and have freedom of speech and media. By this atrocious action, I feel deprived of my uniqueness and my civil liberties are extremely suppressed. Every day, seeing people’s profile pictures reminded me of the essence of their being, and now my days at school feel empty and pushed into ugly neutral colors with one jarring letter in the center. That is not who I am, I don’t personally identify with the color dark green, and I feel as though the balance and power dynamic in the school is completely shifted now.”

Over the four years I’ve spent here in Chatham and been a part of their public school district, I’ve noticed that there has always been a consistent pattern of imposing restrictions on students almost every year. Of course, banning platforms such as Google Hangouts and limiting websites/videos with Securly are proven to be beneficial as they decrease disruptions in learning (even though chatting with friends secretly during class was fun while it lasted). But on the other hand, there have been more unnecessary changes that, oftentimes, challenge the students’ creative freedom. To briefly name some, we have been limited from changing several features, such as our G-mail wallpapers and Google Chrome themes. Though these limitations are indeed very minute and insignificant for some, I definitely do think that it does make using my Chromebook a bit more engaging as it allows me to customize its appearance while simultaneously expressing my individuality. Nonetheless, there is still some freedom in changing our Chrome themes via the color of the background, but a simple and monotone color won’t give you the same satisfaction as choosing a personal background. 

Unfortunately, this cannot be said the same for the profile pictures. It is like a lottery, but instead of money, it’s the color of the picture you are concerned with. Unlike the backgrounds, there is no way to change the color—you’re stuck with it. Many of my friends who feel apathetic about the restriction often like the color of their profile, whether that be a turquoise green or a hot pink. I, however, lost the color lottery and have to remain with a rather ill-fated light green background, which, to me, is an undesirable hue. Don’t get me wrong, I do like other shades of green, but I would prefer that we would at least have the option to change the color of our pictures. Furthermore, it also makes group work more challenging to a certain degree when multiple members share the same initial, and you must place your cursor above the profile just to identify who is on the document. 

To conclude, I do think that the change had good intentions behind it, but I believe that it further negatively impacted the students now that another aspect of our creative freedom has been taken away by the district. It is somewhat funny to me whenever a teacher and the students are on the same document, though. The teacher often has a profile picture, whilst they are surrounded by a ball pit of muted-colored initials on the shared document. For now, we can only hope that the district manages to create a system to track any inappropriate images in the future, and hopefully, our emailing privileges will remain intact in the following years.