Social media has been around for years and with no clear end in sight, it is likely that new forms of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will continue to emerge. However, with Baldwin High School’s new student IPads and more students who posses phones than ever, what will happen? Is social media prohibiting learning? Will drastic action be called upon to stop the classrooms of BHS from becoming a place to post status upon status?

“I think that there can be an educational purpose to using social media but if it’s just for entertainment or an addiction then it shouldn’t be at school. If its not educational then I don’t think they should do it,” BHS principal Rob McKim said.

Spanish teacher Katie Marten said that she also did not believe in an overall use of social media during school hours.

“No I do not, I feel like there are probably some exceptions like if I needed to tweet something to my students. But overall, I think that students shouldn’t use social media in school,” she said.

McKim said that currently he does not have any plans to block social media.

“Right now I am probably in the monitoring stage, were monitoring how the students are using it,” he said. “We’re dealing with misuse of ipads/social media. We’re learning on the fly, if we find out that social media is hindering education, then we will limit it.”

Sophomore Garrett Hundley said that he did not think that all student uses of social media where bad.

“I think a small amount of use is fine, if you’re just on it 24/7 sending messages and such, it’s not really needed. Maybe it should just be used in between classes or at lunch,” Hundley said.

Junior Joe Pierce stated that students probably should not be accessing social media inside of school.

“No not really, but that being said, I do,” he said.

It appears that most of the students and staff at BHS agree that social media should for the most part be left at home, but when asked if their was any way of stopping students from accessing sites such as Twitter or Facebook, answers varied greatly.

Hundley said that he did not think a block was possible.

“I don’t think there’s any way,” he said.

Marten stated that she did not think a block would keep students out.

“I think they would just block the app and block the website. But I think students would get around it,” she said.

Whether social media is a major problem or just a small part of someone’s day, one things appears to be clear, many agree that it should not be allowed in school, and that it is best left at home or rather anywhere else.