“When Johnny first came to me with the app, I was very excited,” Principal Dan Andrus said. “We want students pushing the limits and doing positive things that are forward thinking. But I understand the district’s position when something becomes a commercial business venture that their responsibility and response changes.”
District officials said there was no way they could let Hammerlund make a profit off public resources.
California education codes provide specific guidelines as to what school districts can and cannot do to make money with public resources, such as renting classrooms during nonschool hours at a cost.
“It is sort of like an electronic classroom that he wants to rent,” Williams said. “Right now, there isn’t a statutory framework for that type of initiative. That is the fascination of new technologies, because it really tests existing legal structures and procedures which really haven’t caught up with technology yet.”
In an eMail message to Hammerlund, Russell Miller, assistant superintendent of student services, made it clear that the district would not permit him to use resources from the district’s server to support the app.
“Please pursue your app business outside the district’s property,” Miller wrote in the eMail. “It is my hope that your app business becomes wildly profitable for you and it fulfills all your dreams. You must stop creating workarounds to access our property. It won’t be allowed.”
Miller went on to write, “The district has incurred many hours of employees’ time to ascertain the extent of your use of our property. At this time I have no intention of pursuing the recovery of those costs. But I assure you that if you continue in your efforts I will proceed without hesitation to make it very difficult for you and your app to succeed.”
Hammerlund has addressed the school board several times, most recently during a public comment period April 24, asking school trustees to evaluate the situation.
“I’ve been treated like some sort of criminal,” Hammerlund told board members. “I am not a rogue student that goes against the flow. I’ve been accused of hacking and back-dooring but never praised for my achievements. … I feel like I am being put on trial.”
More than 30 people, many of them friends and family, showed up at the April 24 meeting to support Hammerlund.
“To shut him down is not what we pay our taxes for,” said Rick Collins, whose daughter also attends the high school. “Kids like this should be put up as an example, but instead the district is trying to punish him for it.”
Miller said he was doing his job to protect district resources—in this case, the computer system.
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