This school year, popular grammar and spell-checking software Grammarly is blocked by Rockwood School District, according to a district announcement on Wednesday, Sept. 4. The company failed to meet the standards set in the Missouri chapter of the National Student Data Privacy Consortium (MOSPA)’s student data privacy agreements.
Robert Deneau, Chief Information Officer, said the decision came after Grammarly made changes that went against the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
“This was a change on Grammarly’s end, and the Rockwood Technology Department reacted accordingly by changing our position on Grammarly access,” Deneau said.
Other school districts that are members of MOSPA have taken similar action to block Grammarly after their new changes.
Deneau said other online software has been similarly blocked for refusing to sign a student data privacy agreement with Rockwood.
“The protection of student data is a top priority for the Technology Department and we have a process for evaluating resources that could lead to a resource being blocked,” Deneau said. “Some of these situations can be fluid so we will respond as needed to allow or block resources as circumstances change.
Dennison Harris, senior, said it is important to be protective of internet privacy.
“It is really important to keep student information private, especially because in a lot of cases, we don’t even voluntarily spread our own information legally,” Harris said
Harris said the efforts to protect student data privacy are likely in vain.
“Honestly, I feel like so much of our information is spread out in so many ways already that it would be more valuable to have it as a resource if we’re conscious about how our data is being used,” Harris said.
Natalie Pennington, sophomore, said she relied heavily on Grammarly in many of her classes.
“I didn’t ever use any of their suggested sentence reconstruction,” Pennington said. “I used it mainly for correcting my spelling errors.”
With Google Spell Check, Pennington said there are often errors in suggestions, a problem she rarely experienced while using Grammarly.
“Grammarly gave me more accurate solutions,” Pennington said.
