Art by DJ Hernandez
By Nellie Purdy and Makayla Turrentine
The Chromebook distribution process at Riverside is notoriously long every fall. But bed bugs took it to another level.
This year administration and library staff took initiative by handing out about 200 Chromebooks during summer bridge and freshman orientation, ensuring precious hours of teaching wouldn’t be wasted standing in line.
No good work goes unpunished.
Five days before school started, the media center staff discovered bed bugs in the Chromebook cart.
Riverside media coordinator Jenna Wine said the media center staff were both surprised and horrified.
“Mr Merritt, our new district IT [technician], he screamed,” she said. “We talked to Dr Woods-Weeks and then she immediately put a plan into action.”
On Friday, August 23, exterminators came to the library and took the Chromebooks off-campus to be fumigated.
Bed bugs typically live up to six months without food and it’s hard to be certain how they appeared.
“We think it came in with somebody’s Chromebook,” said Wine. “Somebody has bed bugs, it’s impossible to figure out who that is.”
On Wednesday, September 4, post-fumigation Chromebook redistribution began. Students were called in by birth month to get their laptops.
Students in line were skeptical.
“I do not want to get this computer,” sophomore Deaysha Pearson said.
Freshman Piper Welch was in line for a Chromebook for the second time. She received a Chromebook at freshman orientation, but returned it after bugs were discovered.
Welch wasn’t sure if the Chromebooks were safe to be brought home.
“They said they cleaned it, so that’s fine,” she said. “But I don’t know how well they cleaned it, because the school is kind of gross.”
Junior Mikiyah Simmons got a Chromebook from the library near the end of first period. She left her Chromebook on a table sealed in the ziploc bag and stepped away during lunch. When she returned, she saw bugs in the bag.
Riverside reached the August birthdays before a total recall was announced. At the end of fourth period, all students were directed to return their laptops to the media center.
Sophomore Cade Turgent wasn’t surprised to hear that the bedbugs survived.
“Honestly that would happen at this school,” he said.
There is little prospect of receiving new Chromebooks. DPS has instead opted to fumigate the bug books for a second time. There is no estimated timeline for redistribution.
Many students are in no rush to get them back.
“If [the Chromebook was] 100% clean, I’d use it. But since they already handed them out then recalled them, I don’t trust them,” said junior Tyzjay Simmons.
“I would love to get [a Chromebook], but not with bedbugs in it,” said freshman Zawida Owinio. “When I told my parents they were like ‘your backpack has to stay outside if you get one’.”
Even if fumigated again, sophomore Taliyah Cooper says she won’t touch a Chromebook.
‘We’ve been writing [with paper and pencil] and I like it,” she said.
Teachers have had to act fast and make major adjustments. Many rely on Chromebooks for instruction since moving from physical textbooks to digital copies.
“All pencil and paper over here,” said Turgent.
“I mean we are a 1:1 district, every kid is supposed to have a Chromebook and nobody has one here,” said Owinio.
“Everyone is telling me Riverside isn’t usually like this, but this is all I know.”
History and psychology teacher Gabrielle Minnick has been teaching for ten years. This is the only time she’s taught without students having in-school access to computers.
She says that most of her lesson plans have been affected.
“I think a lot of teachers are having to remake things,” said Minnick. “We are having to pull some of our older [assignments] that we might not use anymore and use that.”
She dug old textbooks out of storage for her students to use. But Chromebooks were a valuable resource in her class when researching different perspectives on historical events.
“Not everything is in a textbook,” she says.
Mike Dibble has taught computer science at Riverside for two and a half years. All of his assignments are online.
“It’s a little hard to do programming on paper,” he said. “In fact, it’s impossible.”
Fortunately, he and his students don’t have to. Computer science is part of the PLTW Engineering program, and has its own supply of devices to use in-class.
“I am lucky that I have a computer lab full of computers, so my students still have access to their assignments and the web,” said Dibble.
But without Chromebooks, students can only work on their assignments in class.
“I would love for students to [be able to] work outside of class hours on their assignments,” he said.
The rest of the school isn’t as lucky.
“The PSAT, ACT, anything [test taken on] Chromebooks,” said Wine. “You can’t use your personal device.”
Riverside obtained 300 new Chromebooks from the district for testing. Otherwise, the school is offline.
“There are so many facets that students use Chromebooks that it’s a little weird when you think about not having a Chromebook, and how different of not only the teaching style, but of a school mentality we have to have without Chromebooks,” said Dibble.
