Over the summer, Issaquah District’s Club and Activities Directors came together and left with a controversial decision: Discord was to be banned in Issaquah District Clubs, effective immediately.
While many clubs used Discord district-wide after the pandemic, it was never an approved communication platform.
“Prior to Discord becoming popular in 2020, we used Remind101, which was monitored by the school, to communicate with the kids,” Michelle Munson, Liberty’s activities director and coordinator, said. “But then COVID hit, and it was harder for kids to communicate through that, so Discord became the easiest app to use. But Discord has never been an approved platform for communication for clubs and activities.”
Some clubs have started using other apps in place of Discord, like Slack and Instagram.
“We haven’t been able to recruit a lot of returning members because they haven’t joined the Slack. Other than that, all we have is Instagram, and not everyone is on Instagram, so we definitely are struggling a little bit with kind of rebuilding our membership while switching over,” Amelia Matin, co-president of Model UN, said.
However, Matin believes that Slack is better than Discord.
“People generally use Slack in a more professional way, since it is more about team membership than Discord, which is nice for a club setting,” Matin said. “You don’t have to deal with made up usernames, for example.”
Discord has never been an approved communication platform because of one main thing: archiving. The district was worried that somebody would want to access something from an earlier date and wouldn’t be able to. Another concern was that the teacher wouldn’t be able to know what students were saying.
“The Discord ban is better for me. It’s less convenient for kids, but it makes me more aware on what’s going on in the club,” UNICEF advisor Alisa Jeremica said. “We also had to shut down social media and other websites for kids in UNICEF, and we told them they needed to use Canvas so the teacher can see what’s being communicated.”
The district board has been thinking of putting a policy on Discord since it first started gaining popularity with students, but they only cracked down on it this summer, because they were worried about the kids’ safety online, where their activity can’t be tracked through the school.
“I want them to communicate. I want them to have fun without teachers, but ultimately, I want them to be safe. And I think that’s why the board decided to put their foot down on Discord,” Munson said.
