LA QUINTA High School students Valerie Tran, Tiffany Le, Brandon Doan, Derrick Le, Isabella Valovinos, and Daisy Truong practice digital citizenship skills (GGUSD photo).

Common Sense, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids and families thrive in a world of media and technology, has recognized La Quinta High School as a Common Sense School.

La Quinta, located in Westminster, has demonstrated its commitment to taking a whole-community approach to preparing its students to think critically and use technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate, while limiting the perils that exist in the online realm, such as plagiarism, loss of privacy, and cyberbullying. The recognition acknowledges the commitment of La Quinta High School teachers, staff, and students in creating a culture of digital citizenship.

La Quinta High School, as well as other secondary schools in Garden Grove Unified School District, have been using Common Sense Education’s innovative and research-based digital citizenship resources, which were created in collaboration with researchers from Project Zero, led by Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The resources teach students, educators, and parents tangible skills related to internet safety, protecting online reputations and personal privacy, media balance, managing online relationships, and media literacy. The free K-12 curriculum is used in classrooms across all 50 states, in more than 50,000 schools, by more than half a million educators.

LQHS has seen disciplinary issues like academic dishonesty decrease since using Common Sense Media Curriculum and plans to incorporate new curriculum components in 2019-2020, including civil communication and hate speech, among others.