In a school celebrated for its cutting-edge learning environment, the weakest link has emerged: unreliable WiFi. As students and teachers battle connectivity issues, their educational efforts come to a frustrating halt, overshadowing recent improvements in phone and attendance policies.
In a school environment, countless technological tools rely on strong connectivity, including school-issued Chromebooks, teacher smartboards and cellular devices. If these items can not consistently function in all parts of the school, is Clayton doing everything to support a healthy learning environment?
The school’s WiFi has been an ongoing issue. However, this year, students and teachers have noticed a decline in the quality of their connectivity.
“It’s far more complicated to keep a WiFi connection right here in my office this year than in the past,” English teacher Darcy Cearley said. “There have been moments in the middle of a work day where I will lose the WiFi to my laptop and/or MacBook. Sometimes it’s a hallway-wide issue, but sometimes the WiFi is just like, ‘No, for now, you’re not gonna have access, and then tomorrow it’ll be someone else who doesn’t have access.’ It’s really random.”
Senior Charlie Meyers stopped using her Chromebook because of the WiFi connection. She now brings a personal laptop that connects better to the WiFi.
“99% of the time, I need to connect to my hotspot as well,” Meyers said. “I love my Chromebook. I only ever had to use my laptop for speech and debate, but I’ve literally been forced to use my laptop.”
Although Meyers discovered a solution for her poor connection during school time, not every student has the means to purchase a laptop to use when their high school’s WiFi fails.

The high school’s tech staff works to fix issues with student Chromebooks, such as slow connectivity, when they are brought in. However, students must leave class to see a tech specialist, which creates additional challenges.
“At the beginning of the year, the directive was, ‘Send any student having issues with WiFi on their Chromebook up to the library,’” Cearley said. “Anytime you have to send someone out of the room to see what can be done about their Chromebook, not only are they absent, but when they get back, catching up can be difficult. Like all students, anytime you get to leave the room, you’re gonna go for a long time, which is fine, but if the connectivity was more consistent, those interruptions would not occur. It certainly interrupts engagement.”
Athletic Director Steve Hutson noticed the decline in the quality of connectivity as soon as Clayton switched providers nearly three years ago.
“Just like you would with your phone, we shopped for the best rates and deals to save money. Well, we went with a different carrier, and immediately, when we transferred over to that carrier, the cell service was nonexistent,” Hutson said.
Hutson relies on good cell service to communicate with other schools and arrange the details of Clayton’s athletic events. He often leaves his office to check his messages in different parts of the school or his car.
“Over the last month, it has not worked at all, to the point where I’m taking my phone off the WiFi and trying to find places in the building where I can get one bar of data to make a call or text,” Hutson said. “I will literally pull out of the parking lot, and my phone will just start buzzing with text messages and missed phone calls from people [who] needed me. That’s upsetting because that’s a poor reflection on me as an athletic administrator.”
When the new phone policy was enacted at the beginning of this school year, many parents were concerned about the safety hazards of their children being unable to contact them in an emergency. However, in many parts of the building, even if students were allowed to use their phones, they could not text or call anyone because of the lack of connectivity.

Although not as dire as an emergency, poor school connectivity has several other dangers. The high school hosts an annual speech and debate tournament annually, where around 30-35 schools from across Missouri and Illinois compete. Meyers headed the judge’s committee this year alongside her co-president, the coach and the tournament director.
“Every year that I’ve done the CFC, I’ve been a different part of it,” Meyers said. “This year, I was the head of the judge’s Committee, so I was front and center, seeing everything happening during the tournament. The thing that stood out to me this year is I’ve never had people come up to me and be like, ‘Do you know the WiFi? Can you help me with the WiFi? Should I go outside to get a better connection?’ Our WiFi wasn’t working for people, and they didn’t know what to do.”
In an environment that was high pressure even before any connectivity issues, the poor WiFi quality only added on. Meyers suddenly had much more on her plate and an entire school to take accountability for.
“You might go into a round and have prepared your case for weeks, and then get up there on the podium to give your speech, and it says WiFi disconnected, so you can’t access anything. That is so anxiety-inducing,” Meyers said. “I saw a girl outside, and she was like, ‘Is the WiFi always this bad?’ People just seemed annoyed. I was very embarrassed that people were going to leave this tournament with this notion or assumption that they literally couldn’t even compete properly here.”
Meyers emphasized the importance of students being able to send emails throughout the day. She noted the difficulty in communication she has experienced as a direct result of slow connection speeds.

“I had so much more homework because I couldn’t do things during class. On top of that, I am an involved student. I need to email teachers at all times during the day. When I can’t access those forms of communication because of the WiFi, it might set Speech and Debate things back. It might set meetings for Globe back or for class officers,” Meyers said. “It’s so undeniably frustrating that we have to deal with this when school should be a place to be productive and foster an environment where we can learn and efficiently get classwork completed. The fact that that’s not a reality is absolutely ridiculous.”
Certain areas of the high school have seamless connectivity, and others lack enough signal to send or receive texts. The English hallway is infamous for its horrible connection, likely due to its partially underground location.
“When your office is down here, and your classroom is upstairs, you do feel a difference,” Cearley, who once taught a class on the second floor, said regarding the difference in the strength of WiFi. “And in that school year, I would have issues working in my office that I would not experience in the classroom upstairs.”
Poor connectivity hinders student learning and often prevents students from conferencing with teachers or staff members regarding timely matters.
“I had a meeting with Carolyn Blair, who is my college counselor. She’s a very busy woman,” Meyers said. “When you schedule a time to talk with her, especially when everyone’s trying to get their college essays done, you take advantage of that time. I met with her, and for 45 minutes, the WiFi wasn’t connecting to my Chromebook, and I couldn’t access my College Board, which was the entire reason I was there to talk with her. She couldn’t edit my essay with me in that room. She couldn’t discuss anything with me college related that required my computer, which is everything college-related. I can’t even meet with my counselor.”
Although some may argue that cell phones should not be used at school, many teachers rely on them for their lessons.
“I understand our policy about phones in the classroom,” Cearley said. “However, there are some occasions where I want students to look something up on a phone very quickly, but when we have limited cellular service down here, that becomes an issue. Currently, we’re working on our websites for our graphic novels, and that requires uploading pictures. Because students are taking pictures with their phone and then emailing those pictures to themselves, they have to go outside to get the email to actually send because the WiFi is not strong enough in this building.”