Students are not allowed to use the Media Center printers. In the past, the Media Center had printing stations that students could use but unfortunately these don’t exist anymore. This has caused issues for students who don’t have printers at home, since most teachers also do not give students access to their printers. Sometimes teachers will require students to print out an assignment, notes, or a project. Not being able to use the Media Center printers can be hard on those who don’t have access to printers outside of school.
Mrs. Evans is a Media Specialist here at the Swamp. Before being a Media Specialist she was an English and Creative Writing teacher for 11 years.
Evans said, “I still get to teach most days and still get to be with students and be around books. I think it combines all of the things that I love into one place.”
Brynn Crawford is a Junior. In all of her English classes since Freshman year she has been required to print out notes for Seminars.
Crawford said, “Sometimes whenever we have seminars in school, I forget to print out my papers, but we’re not allowed to use our computers during them. So it’s really frustrating when the Media Center doesn’t let us print papers during the day.”
Sometimes teachers don’t want their students to use their printers because they don’t want to waste paper they could use for their class. Brynn has faced this problem when trying to find ways to print out her seminar notes.
Crawford said, “There are a lot of teachers that tell you to go to the Media Center to print something, but then we have to explain that you can’t use the Media Center to print anything.”
There is a reason why the Media Center doesn’t let students print anymore and no longer even has the printing stations from previous years. These printing stations had devices that students could log into and then connect to the printer.
Evans said, “Chromebooks, the student devices do not have the printing capability, so we had to have those extra devices. But, we no longer have those devices that can print and so for that reason, we can’t have student printing anymore.”
Students should ask the teacher who gave the assignment first and if they don’t agree to print it out then they can turn to a different teacher who would be willing to print for them. When Mrs. Evans was a teacher she would let her students use her printer if they needed even if it was for a different class.
Teachers and students need to work together to find common ground on this issue. Students should try to use resources that they have at home but teachers should also be understanding when a student comes asking for help printing.
