Damaged Chromebooks

STORY BY COLE SCHUCK »
Almost every class in Eudora High
School revolves around the use of
Chromebooks. They have proven to be
an effective and helpful resource, so

when a student breaks their provid-
ed laptop, it can get them extremely

behind in their classes. But how likely

are students to break their Chrome-
books and what are the most common

ways this can happen?
“By far the most common reason
for breaks in Chromebooks are simply
the devices being dropped,” said Phil
Bain, a resident I.T. technician at
Eudora High School.
“Most of my repairs are cracked
screens,” he said, “either from being
dropped or from too much external
pressure being applied to the device.”

Bain repairs around 20 to 25 Chrome-
books a year damaged by Cardinal

students.

“While accidents do happen,” said
Ron Long, the Technology Director at
Eudora Schools, “for the most part, we

(Information Technology Services) be-
lieve that the repairs done throughout

the year are a very small percentage
compared to other
districts we talk to.”
Phil Bain believes
that a majority of these
incidents take place
after school hours.
“We also do not
have near the same
amount of damage
at either the middle or elementary
schools, where students do not take
their devices home,” said Bain.

That is not to say that these inci-
dents can’t happen in school. Fresh-
man Simon Walrod was walking in

the hallway on his third day of school
this year, when someone ran into him
and his

Chrome-
book hit

the ground.
“The parts that broke were the
hinge shells, which you can easily
snap back on for most people, and the
screen,” Simon said.
Whether it be in school or out

of school, the main thing that stu-
dents can do in order to prevent their

Chromebook from being damaged is

to simply carry it in either the pro-
tective case that the school provided,

or in a place where they know that if
dropped it will not be broken.
“In all, these devices hold up pretty
well,” said Bain.