For Macielle Osterling, a junior at Mira Costa, finding a place to print her English essays and biology notes is often like going on a “treasure hunt.”
With no printer at home, she’s relied on her neighbors and on-campus printers for years. So when the printers were removed from the school’s library at the start of her junior year, she was outraged.
The issue came up in her Spanish class one day last semester – students expressed frustration with the change, but none were acting on it.
So, Osterling went to work. She whipped out some paper and asked her classmates to sign a document: a petition to bring back the printers.
“The entire class signed it,” she said. By the end of the semester, about 700 students had signed the petition.
Determined to inspire change, she and her classmates took the issue to the School Board – “The only thing paperless is the girls bathroom,” she said at the board’s last meeting, prompting laughs from district officials and audience members.
Mira Costa Principal Ben Dale said the issue was actually not about the school going paperless, but rather that the printers in the library were constantly jammed or broken due to excess use.
Prior to last semester, three printers were available to students in the library. Multiple print jobs were sent at once, jamming the printer, Dale said. When they were fixed, eight to 12 assignments would print, depleting the printer’s paper supply. “It was just a bad system,” he said, adding that he didn’t want the librarian to serve as a print-job clerk. “Students’ ability to print had to be done in such a way that it was trouble-free, maintenance-free.”
Still, the students’ demand for printers caused school officials to reevaluate the printing program.
This semester, Dale introduced a pilot program for the printers. The printers were moved to the copy room, which is now staffed with a technician. Students can email a PDF or Word document to the technician, who will then print their assignments. Students can then pick up their papers between 7:30 and 8 a.m. or during lunch for 10 cents a side, Dale said.
Still, the students aren’t satisfied. “I don’t think Mr. Dale’s solution is feasible,” said Calvin Chesler, Mira Costa junior, adding that he’d rather see students donate paper and toner, and bring the printers back to the library.
Osterling said the morning pick-up time falls during zero period, during which many students have class, and that the copy room could get flooded with students, potentially affecting teachers who use the copy room. She suggested creating a printer committee to work with Mr. Dale to create solutions.
Brittany Donaleshen, Mira Costa junior, suggested moving the printers behind the librarian’s counter, which would help enforce the printing fee.
Dale maintained the new program would increase students’ access to printers, because they could email their assignments from anywhere. What the program doesn’t allow for, he said, is for students to print assignments last-minute. “I’m not trying to solve that problem,” he said, adding, “I have very little interest in solving either ‘I forgot’ or ‘I procrastinated.’”
