As usual, there’s a large group of students walking through the hallways during passing time. Some walk slowly to a class that’s just down the hall while others speed ahead to get to class on time. One thing they have in common is that passing time is when students of all ages and grades check their cell phones for the latest Snaps from their friends, scroll through Instagram and TikTok, and blast Spotify playlists on their AirPods. 

Despite its regularity, there’s a small inconsistency in this daily routine. Students use these apps much less than they used to a few weeks ago. They glance at the top right corner of their phones in hopes that they’ll see a little fan-like symbol which gives them the ability to scroll through social media without using their data but continue to be disappointed when it’s not there. This little symbol was students’ lifeline a few weeks back; it was the only thing preventing all their scrolling, watching, and listening from eating up their precious data. However, that symbol has been missing from their lives for about four weeks now. After being in their lives for so long, many students are now without the school WiFi and whether someone snitched or the administration found out on their own, no one knows. The only thing students know for sure now is that the WiFi is gone. Their access has been denied, and there’s no getting it back. 

“It’s annoying,” sophomore Grace Kapolka said. “They don’t want students on the Wi-Fi or on their phones in class. Myself and others would appreciate maybe…turning on the guest Wi-Fi earlier or something.”

Although their access has been revoked, many students have been trying different ways to get onto the school Wi-Fi. Be that as it may, the school administration has cracked down on access to this amenity with a password that is rumored to consist of sixty-four unique characters and supposedly changes every day. All attempts to recover even one of the many days’ passwords have proved unsuccessful, so students continue without them, suffering due to the lack of service and data within the school. 

“I have an online class,” senior Brooklyn Nichols fumed. “It’s really hard to do it on my iPad. I tried to submit a test once and it did not go through. It totally deleted all my work. I have to do a lot of assignments at home because in school the website won’t load sometimes.”

Even the most tech-savvy of those who have attempted to recover the password have come up empty-handed. However, there may be a glimmer of hope. One student, who has asked to remain anonymous, claims to have discovered the secret to getting the passwords. 

“It’s really simple,” they said. [redacted]