As many Camas High School (CHS) students are aware, the CHS guest internet is mediocre in quality, providing poor speeds and restricting certain websites and applications students can access. Many students have taken to using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to bypass these restrictions.

These restrictions being bypassed makes it difficult for teachers to stop students from sending messages via Instagram or Snapchat, two of the apps restricted by the CHS guest Wi-Fi. Matthew Chase, a math tea

cher at CHS says that the use of a VPN is an inconvenience for him because students keep using a VPN to play games on their phones “I think it’s annoying, students are always on their phones during class, doing whatever.” 

While it is true that CHS students are using VPN to bypass certain restrictions, students at CHS also use a VPN to stop CHS from tracking what websites they visit. Elizabeth Serkutan a student at Carmel High School in California has a similar WiFi system to Camas. She said she doesn’t like being watched. “The thought of being watched makes me uncomfortable, I don’t like them seeing what I’m doing.” 

It is no secret to the student body that any network they connect to can see the websites they visit by tracking their Internet Protocol (IP). When a student connects to the CHS guest Wi-Fi the student’s IP is immediately logged and the school can see what websites that student will visit. 

While CHS can see what websites a student may go to without the use of a VPN, it would take too long to go through every student’s IP address, instead, CHS blacklists or blocks certain websites so that students at CHS can not access them in the first place.

When a student uses a VPN their IP is masked or changed, when this happens CHS can’t log or track a student’s IP  because the student’s web traffic is now encrypted.

Many people claim that the use of a VPN can be harmful due to user information being sold, this is not entirely true. Common VPN services such as Nord VPN have access to your data but do not sell it to advertisers According to the Nord VPN Privacy Policy, “We do n

ot share your personal information with third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy.” 

While there is no clear indicator that using a VPN is against CHS’s code of conduct regarding internet use, it is implied that students at CHS will only use the internet network provided for school-related purposes. According to the CHS Code of Conduct, “Use of the network, which includes the local Camas School District computer network as well as the Internet, shall be in support of education and research that is consistent with the mission of Camas School District.” 

Many CHS students may be inclined to download a VPN, the risk of CHS seeing a CHS student’s IP and noticing the location of the IP address does not aline with the location of CHS, is definitely there and should not be thought of as something that is too unrealistic to happen. While it is true that there are a lot of students at CHS and the probability of CHS staff seeing a student masked IP is low, it is not zero and disciplinary action could be taken