There’s an old saying in Santa Barbara: Keep LA 100 Miles Away.
…unless it’s about tech policy at schools.
The conversations surrounding how iPads are used at Santa Barbara Unified schools and the privacy and child development issues associated with them all came to a fever pitch last evening at the district’s board meeting.
Parents’ demands? Adopt the same tech-use policy as the Los Angeles Unified School District and fix the security issues in district-issued devices.
“What LA has done was striking,” said Casey Hare, a parent who worked with Techwise SB. “We could have been a leader here, but we didn’t do it…LA has shown us the way. LA has shown us what we could not do, even though we knew the right path multiple years ago.”
They were there to speak on a report from the Balanced Learning and Technology Task Force regarding use and regulation of district-issued iPads.
The LAUSD policy parents want implemented at SBUSD refers to a resolution approved by the LAUSD board recently to reduce student screen time, adopting the policy of “technology with intention.” For SBUSD, this means that the district should be more intentional with how iPads are used in the classrooms.
A group of 50 parents packed the district’s meeting last night, arriving early with signs reading “if it’s good enough for LAUSD, it is good enough for SBUSD!” and “pencils not pixels.”
Many were there waiting to speak on a report from the district’s Balanced Learning and Technology Task Force, which surveyed students and teachers about tech use and provided recommendations going forward.
The room was packed, prompting several attendees to pour into the overflow room.
On top of Tuesday’s meeting containing a multitude of items, it also started nearly 40 minutes late.
The tech-use report that parents were waiting to speak on wasn’t brought up until two hours into the meeting. It could’ve been later, had the board decided to not move it higher on the agenda.
As the night went on, some parents decided to leave one-by-one, but a majority, driven largely by frustration with the district, committed to staying until it was their turn to speak.
What parents want
Parents at the meeting presented two overarching issues with the iPads: its impact on their child’s development and the regulation and monitoring over use.
During public comment, parents argued that iPads should not be the default in curriculums, but rather that they should only be used when of unique educational value. Instead of the subject revolving around using tech, tech should be adapted to the subject.
“The community is asking for less reliance on these online platforms, and yet, it seems like students are still tethered to this as an only option,” said Emily Zacarias, a Goleta Union School Board member.
Some of the demands parents outlined included banning YouTube and non-educational platforms on the iPads, creating an option for students to “opt-out” of iPads, setting screen time limits, and ending device use during lunch, breaks and in passing periods.
“My whole family is affected by YouTube use,” Simon Bentley, a parent and IT consultant, told the News-Press. He said that his son is “a lot nicer without the screens” and sees a huge difference in his ability to be rational.
A petition created by a coalition of parents called “Pencils Not Pixels” on Friday to “Tell SBUSD: Reign in the Rampant Use of Screens,” which listed these demands, has since garnered over 400 signatures.
The demands stem from parents’ concern over the impact of iPad use on their kids’ safety and development but also in their relationships with them, especially when the iPads go home.
“A child with access to an iPad that includes YouTube and ChatGPT with no adult oversight is empirically at risk for serious harms, through cognition, attention, executive function and wellness,” said Mona Damluji, a parent and associate professor at UC Santa Barbara. “The burden should not be on individual parents or the individual children to defend against the potential harms of school-issued iPads.”
Bentley was also concerned about the district’s shortcomings in not providing students with a secure digital learning environment. Kids are smart, Bentley said, and will find loopholes.
After a friend’s daughter suffered nightmares from a horror game accessed on a district-issued iPad, he decided to do his own research, both in his capacity as a parent and tech professional.
He found that in the district-issued iPads, students can bypass content filters, log in to their personal Apple ID, and access AI platforms like ChatGPT.
He presented his findings in a report, sent it to the board and filed a public records request earlier this month for privacy agreements with vendors like ChatGPT that access student data. He compiled several recommendations addressing these issues including the hiring of an outsourced chief informational officer.
Ali Bjerke, a parent who also works in tech, gave examples of these loopholes during public comment. She said that a student searched, “can I get blood if I’m on lexotan,” “use paper soaked with drugs to pass in prison,” and “Japanese anime of S&M male-on-male abusive fatal relationships,” and several blocked sites.
What the district is doing
The district is trying to find a middle ground in addressing parents’ concerns while ensuring students adapt to the digital world.
The district transformed its tech-use committee into a “Balanced Learning and Technology Task Force,” which recently conducted a student survey and teacher questionnaire about iPad usage. with all but one SBUSD school, La Cumbre, which is currently being surveyed.
Steve Venz, chief operating officer of the district’s Educational Technology Services, serves on the task force along with board members Sunita Beall, Celeste Kafti, parents and school staff.
He presented the task force’s recommendations based on the results of the survey, which found that students and teachers tended to support iPad use, much to the dismay of some parents.
Nick Burwell, a parent of kids at Dos Pueblos High School and Goleta Valley Junior High, said that “much of the report is instead focused on student survey results” instead of “evidence that technology increases learning or leads to better outcomes for the students.”
“Why are they asking the kids about this,” Burwell asked. “We don’t have them vote on whether candy and soda should be available for free at school.”
However, the recommendations presented by the task force were seemingly in alignment with the parents’ demands. They include blocking student YouTube access, ending device use during lunch and breaks, turning iPads off and putting them away as default, blocking cameras, restricting personal Apple ID logins and blocking AI platforms.
Board members Gabe Escobedo, Kafri and Beall validated parents’ concerns about screen time and knowing how iPads are being used at home. The main discussion among board members was around equity—how does the district still make sure all students have access to a device?
“I know that during COVID, we talked about equity,” Beall said. “We needed device access because we were all remote… I think if we say the word “equity,” we really should define what that means and what circumstances we say it is a better idea to have a device at home.”
For Escobedo, equity is having the option to access an iPad.
“If a family does not have access to a device, that they are able to get one from the district…it’s more of like an “opt-in” versus just a writ large, everybody gets a device” Escobedo said.
Kafri, eliciting applause from the crowd, said, “it is less equitable to send devices home when kids have unfettered access, and we can easily get data on what kids are using their iPad for at home.”
Though no actionable policy was taken at Tuesday’s meeting, Board President Bill Banning stated, “I don’t know that we get a whole lot from tonight’s conversation other than an absolute sense of alignment in purpose and intent for ourselves and for the children in our school district.”
