On Jan. 18, the student body received an email from ACSD Technology Coordinator Roger Warne, reminding students to plug in their laptops on weekends and breaks. He said 95 percent of students who have recently come to the tech department requesting help for their devices left their laptops unplugged for too long and let the batteries go completely dead. “Most of the time a complete reset will fix it, this is different from holding the ESC and Refresh keys to restart the device,” he said in the email. He ended the message with some sarcasm to reach the attention of the students who were letting their laptops die, saying “Heaven forbid that you ever let your phone go dead.”

Fellow tech department member Laurie Parrott sent a follow-up email to students on Jan 26, where she stressed the importance of making sure you do not leave your laptops in cold vehicles. “It is very hard on them, and they may not be able to be repaired,” she said. Parrott further explained to students that they needed to keep their laptops charged and ended by reminding kids to keep their cases on the device. “The case is to protect your computer, and you from an expensive bill if the computer is damaged.”

Three juniors were interviewed about the laptops since they had two years with the old laptops and now get to experience two years with the new laptops. Daniel Freund thinks the Macbooks were easier to use because “we could have our own personal emails set up on them,” but still, “it is important to keep your laptop charged for school use.” His tip to keeping his laptop charged is to check the charge on the device every time you get home.

Angelica Anderson said she doesn’t know enough about the technical capabilities of the laptops to compare the old ones to the new ones. “I still don’t know the full extent of what my computer is capable of, and frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever know,” she said. Charging her laptop is very important to her as it’s taking care of school property. Anderson said, “We don’t even own anything the school gives us except for knowledge and memories to last a lifetime.” Her helpful hint on keeping laptops charged is to “treat your computer like your phone.”

Lastly, Merrick Odette thinks that are Chromebooks better than Macbooks because “they can easily last all day,” and that all school property should be treated with respect. “You should always treat someone else’s property with care as if it were your own belongings,” he said. Odette said it is “important to keep devices charged” and that he tries to never let his battery charge go below 10 percent. His advice on keeping laptops charged is to plug it in the morning or right when you get home. “Keeping a consistent schedule on when you charge can be a helpful habit to make,” he said.

A survey went out to all AHS students of which 107 answered. 93 percent of them say they do, or at least usually keep their laptops charged yet 67 percent have had their batteries completely go dead before. Most charge their laptops every other day while less charge them daily/nightly. 21 percent of people admitted to charging them one to three times a week or not charging them ever. While not everyone is keen on charging their devices every day, 85 percent of students are taking care of their laptops by not leaving them in cold vehicles.