On Aug. 4, 2025, Redwood announced its new and long-awaited update on the Bring Your Own Device policy (BYOD). In the email sent out to the Tamalpais Union High District (TUHSD), district officials said starting this school year, students will no longer be able to use their own personal devices (laptops, phones, tablets, etc) on the district WiFi. The reasoning behind this new policy was to strengthen cybersecurity and increase student engagement at school. The only exceptions and accommodations would be through an IEP, 504 plan or health-related reason. This rule affects not only students, but also teachers who use the same WiFi.

Senior Maximilien McGuire was agitated by the new policy and decided to call for change. McGuire took inspiration from a petition created last year against the possible Yondr phone pouches proposed at TUHSD schools.

Many students also agree with McGuire’s opinion about Chromebooks. When recently surveyed about how they felt about the new policy, 53 percent of students said they strongly disliked the new policy, and an additional 30 percent said they didn’t like the new policy.

Susanne Maxwell, who teaches Photography, Advanced Placement (AP) Art History and Art Explorations, also had concerns about the speed of computers.

“I [think it] makes the classroom flow more slowly. It hinders the rhythm and momentum of the classroom,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell also states that the Chromebooks have slowed down the pace of her classes, as students have not been able to use their personal computers this year.

“It’s just a waste of time in school, where our goal is to be learning as much as possible and doing all our work to the best of our ability, and the Chromebooks make it harder to do that,” McGuire said.

Many students are frustrated with the time that Chromebooks are taking to load, and ignore TUHSD policy by connecting to their phone hotspot or hiding a personal laptop behind a Chromebook.

McGuire created a petition challenging the new policy that currently has around 360 signatures. He emailed the petition to the school board in hopes that they would take feedback from students, teachers and parents, all of whom signed the petition. McGuire stated that most of the people he talked to, students and adults, agree that the policy is making students less productive and having more difficulty learning. He believes students should have more of a say in some of the rules, as they are directly affected by them.

“We have always felt as teachers that it would be helpful if we were included in these conversations, because we would tell [TUHSD] what’s useful as a teacher and what’s going to support us, or if that’s going to take more time [from learning],” Maxwell said.

Maxwell went on to say that because teachers and students are the ones being directly affected by technological changes throughout the district, being included in these conversations is important to her and other teachers.

“If they collaborate more with teachers, [the district] might be able to find better solutions…They need to include [teachers],” Maxwell said.

McGuire has similar ideas for collaboration and believes that the petition he created won’t gain as much traction as it needs to make an impact if more people don’t talk about it. He believes that to make real change, the whole community needs to get involved.

“The more voices that you have when you’re creating new policies, the easier it is for people to adapt to them, and hopefully the more sound the policy is,” Maxwell said.