During the 2024-2025 school year, the program Lightspeed was introduced throughout Freedom High School. The implementation of Lightspeed altered the way both teachers and students performed in the classroom.
This app is widely known for allowing teachers to mirror the screens of students, letting them monitor what each student is doing on their devices at every given moment. Some other features on Lightspeed include directly messaging students, closing down their tabs, temporarily cutting off the internet and more. However, the main limitation with using Lightspeed is that it only works on LCPS-issued devices; therefore, students were able to bypass this program by using their own personal devices. But, with new LCPS provisions during the 2025-2026 school year, personal devices are now prohibited in school.
This raises the question of whether or not teachers should be able to use the program. Lightspeed has both positive and negative aspects, making it hard to fully commit to one side.
Lightspeed raises concerns for invasion of privacy. This is largely due to the fact that many students are in the dark about what data is actually collected on Lightspeed. From my experience, I’ve only been told that it enables teachers to see our screens and close our tabs, which are only two of the many tools Lightspeed offers. This contributes to a lack of transparency from teachers, which is an issue because students should have the right to know what is being tracked on their devices.
In order to ease this loss of privacy, teachers should be required to tell students what data Lightspeed is collecting. This helps build trust between students and their instructors because without it, it just feels like constant surveillance for no reason. So, while it’s fair for teachers to want students to stay on task, it’s not fair for them to resort to using Lightspeed by assuming that every student is misusing their device.
Instead of monitoring our screens 24/7, the utilization of Lightspeed should be restricted to only when students are taking summative assessments. This ensures that students are taking tests using knowledge from their own brain while also preventing cheating and the use of AI—which is a double win. With this, students can trust that their teachers aren’t abusing their power and teachers can guarantee that the student honor code is being upheld during assessments.
It is crucial for schools to be able to sustain a balance between privacy and protection because they can coexist, but only when communication is present and restrictions are put in place.
