Westford Academy experienced a school-wide internet outage on the first day of the 2024-25 school year, Wednesday Aug. 28. Though the issue proved to be a huge problem for administration, this is not the first time students and staff have had issues connecting to the Wi-Fi.
According to Principal Dan Twomey, administration and staff noticed the internet problem at 6:40 a.m. on the first day and quickly learned that, in addition to the Wi-Fi and internet being shut down, the phone lines and ability to make announcements were not working either.
Mid-day, administration realized that the outage occurred because there was an issue with the fiber optic cables that come into the building. As all of the schools and town offices share the same fiber optic cables, the problem was not with WA’s Wi-Fi connection specifically, but with the town-wide cables, as 18 out of 20 were damaged.
“[The town administrator] has worked with our contractor to get the cables all fixed, so that’s a big move. And they replaced a good chunk of them,” Twomey said. “This one was more beyond my control. The infrastructure here for Wi-Fi and the service that we have in the building has continually gotten better, and better, and better, and so we’ll keep investing in that as we go along.”
Though there have been investments towards Wi-Fi and service in the past, most students still face challenges when it comes to connecting to Wi-Fi. According to junior Olivia Bernier, it can often take up to ten minutes for texts to go through, making the process of trying to organize a ride home extremely slow and challenging, especially as plans change throughout the day.
When the Wi-Fi in a location does not work, it is common to turn it off and use cellular data. However, many students also have had issues connecting to cellular data, oftentimes only receiving one bar of signal or even SOS. According to Bernier, there are several dead zones in the building where there is no signal at all such as history classrooms, the bell lobby, and sometimes the library.
“[Last year at the end of the day], calls would fail. Calls still fail wherever I am in the building, even on Wi-Fi,” senior Cathy Zhu said. “And texts never go through, so at pick-up time, it’s just like cross your fingers, hope for good luck that your plans stick, otherwise you can’t really contact your parents.”
Many students also worry whether the Wi-Fi will respond in emergency or crisis situations. According to senior Olivia Roux, there have been times where she has been sick and needed to go home. However, the nurses require permission from parents before allowing students to be dismissed, and Roux could not reach her mom because she could not connect to the Wi-Fi or data.
Additionally, many students, like senior Rithvik Ragunath, feel that it could prove to be a hazard. If only certain parts of the building have connection to Wi-Fi or data, there is very little chance of being able to contact home during any emergency.
“I think the standard should just be Wi-Fi that I can [use to] call and text. That’s the bare minimum,” Ragunath said. “I don’t need to be able to access Instagram or something like that, that’s not what I’m asking for. I just want to be able to call and text. That’s all. That’s the basic necessity.”
