Catherine Forde-
For many years, Sutton High has been left in the dark regarding the cell towers; what’s going on with the service? Why are we lacking information about something that affects us so greatly? In some parts of the school the service works wonderfully, while in others, it’s nonexistent. When students first arrived at the beginning of the school year, there was a new wifi login which was helpful, but there still has not been any clarification regarding the service. Unfortunately, even the wifi itself is not of the best quality either. The town’s website states that the process of putting up the towers was a five-year effort, which seems way longer than it should be. This “timeline” was posted on March 22nd of 2018, so the process is still in the early stages. The selectman Paul Maynard said, “This has to go through the Planning Board and the Zoning Board. Assuming it goes smoothly, I’m hopeful to have a cell tower in the fall.” But from word around town, there has apparently been one cell tower put up near the school that highly benefits any Verizon wireless carriers. In regards to my own experience with the service so far this year, the connection in the school parking lot has improved but the closer you head towards oxford, it is still not of the best quality. It is also unfair to the people who carry a cell phone that is either AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc. They deserve the same equality in phone usage as us Verizon carriers do, because they most likely purchased same device such as an iPhone. On the other hand, if you carry an iPhone you have a slight advantage because all apple products have iMessage downloaded onto it, which lets carriers receive and send text messages through wifi. But still, even if someone does possess an apple product, they cannot communicate with other cellular devices that do not carry iMessage. They also are unable to make phone calls as that is not running off wireless connection.
Clearly, the administration is considering the desires within the town. More cell towers will be placed at the Whittier’s Farm, and the family will help partake in the process. It seems like the Whittier family is always involved somehow with different events going on in the town, and by providing this they will not only make a fantastic impression on their business, but also within the community. The Sutton website has been somewhat helpful in giving some reliable information such as providing some insight from the people who run the town as well as the technological department. But I wanted to dig deeper into the process, to really have a better look into what is truly happening.
I decided to have a word with our principal, Mr. McCarthy, to hopefully get more information. Throughout the entire conversation he seemed to not obtain much information on the topic. When not even the own administration knows what is happening with the most frequently asked question, we are really being left in the dark. I asked him how the service in the town is affecting the High School and Mr. McCarthy replied saying, “I think the kids are being affected because they cannot go on as many websites through our server because some of them are blocked, and if they were able to access reliable cell service, they would be able to go on more sites that they normally wouldn’t be able to use.” This all seems suspicious and makes me wonder if the school is preventing the cell service from being fully active. Blocking several websites and servers has been a recurring pattern within the technological side of the school. It all comes together and makes sense because then the school will not have to put more effort and money towards blocking certain sites. Hopefully this is not the reasoning behind why the process if being prolonged.
After I uncovered some information on the basic details in regard to the cell service, I followed up on whether or not the school is actually working on improving it. Mr. McCarthy responded to this, stating, “That’s through the town, from what I’ve heard, they’ve contracted it and it is all in the matter of getting it up online, but I haven’t really heard much.” This proves right then and there that communication has been an issue throughout all of this. I asked if he thinks having unreliable service is not only a safety issue within the school but also with the town. He replied, “It is obviously going to be better for the community if we have better, more reliable cell service because now everyone has a cell phone and more and more people don’t own landlines anymore.” Having these towers put up should be a top priority for not only safety but common convenience and would increase the reputation of the town and how everyone says it has “no service” everywhere. It is also unfortunate because on the Eastern side of the town, the cell service works just fine. If newcomers to the town are informed of this negative information, it might mislead them from moving here. Overall, Mr. McCarthy’s response was positive and he can see the frustration that others share with this issue. He was absolutely correct when he stated how more people have cell phones, and that times really are changing with technology; soon we might even get rid of landlines altogether. The most important topic I pulled away from my conversation with Mr. McCarthy was the aspect of safety. If an emergency happened on campus somehow, it is in our best interest to have access to every form of communication available. There have been numerous times where personally I have been driving in Sutton and needed to pull up directions. Since everyone in this generation has grown up using directions such as google maps, knowing your way home especially during night time can be nearly impossible. Or if god forbid someone gets in a car accident. How will they have access to any form of help if they do not have cell service? As the times are quickly progressing, it will be in not only Sutton’s best interest but any other area that has this same issue, to resolve this problem before it is too late. Having the cell towers up and operating will not only improve the school system, but also the society of the town.
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