A student activist was called into a private meeting with district administrators after conducting a survey across all high schools about the YouTube ban and other tech restrictions on district-issued iPads.
Mateo Gallegos, who serves as student board representative of San Marcos High School’s Associated Student Body, told the News-Press that on Friday, he was called out from second period to meet with district Superintendent Hilda Maldonado and Board President Bill Banning.
He said the superintendent told him she was set to email ASB directors to “clarify the role of student board representative” as a position unaffiliated with the district.
Gallegos said Maldonado’s message was “scary in the moment.”
Worried, he said he believed that meant he and his colleagues who conducted the survey would lose their positions in ASB.
“ASB is my home,” Gallegos said.
What played out on Tuesday night’s board meeting was the latest flashpoint over an ongoing debate over the district’s responsibility in regulating the iPads issued to students.
Santa Barbara Unified’s new restrictions on student technology were a hard-fought win for many parents. But for many students — and some teachers — they’ve been one frustration after another.
In June, Santa Barbara Unified banned YouTube and other non-instructional Google platforms, such as Google Translate and Google Earth, on district-issued iPads.
In the days following the ban, Gallegos, a then-junior from San Marcos High School, immediately sprang into action.
He conducted a survey at San Marcos to see how students were impacted and found that 85% were relying on YouTube for help on subjects.
At the beginning of the new school year, he recruited the help of students from other schools to conduct a larger-scale survey and found similar results.
Now, those students are urging the district to consider the negative impacts of the ban and the wider-scale technology restrictions implemented as part of “technology with intent.”
They presented the results of the survey at the district’s Sept. 15 board of trustees meeting during public comment, packing the board room with fellow students who were there in support.
In a statement to the News-Press, district spokesperson Ed Zuchelli said, “student input has been an important part of this work, and hearing directly from students helps us understand how district decisions like technology use affect their learning and school experience.”
With responses from over 1,700 students, the students who conducted the survey found that the reality of the new restrictions for many of the respondents has meant a loss of educational content, a lack of understanding what can be accessed and an overall feeling like they were left out of a conversation on a subject that directly impacts them.
“You cannot create policies based on the assumption that every student has access to the same resources waiting for them at home,” said Emilio Gonzalez, who administered the survey at Dos Pueblos High School.
Gonzalez, who only uses a flip phone as his personal device, added: “AP, SAT, ACT, academic tutors can cause thousands of dollars.”
Along with Gonzalez, Mateo recruited Autumn Richardson from San Marcos and Frida Salgado from Santa Barbara High School to administer the surveys at their respective schools.
“I am so frustrated, but I am so glad I have a survey to talk about this,” a Santa Barbara High student said in the survey. “It feels like there’s been no other way to talk about how the district has turned a blind eye to this.”
Under the new restrictions, 84% said the YouTube ban negatively impacted their ability to study and complete assignments. Some students said they couldn’t access material for their classes or extracurriculars.
“It’s been rough for me,” a respondent from Dos Pueblos said. “Since I’m taking a lot of difficult classes, I’ve always used YouTube as a helpful resource educationally. Videos from math tutors, Khan Academy and Heimler’s History have significantly helped me in school. Without them, I’d be lost. This year has been a super difficult adjustment.”
“In theater, we can’t access our vocal tracks or research characters,” another Dos Pueblos student responded.
Some students said they were unable to access scholarship applications on the CommonApp, the platform where students submit applications to college.
Though the district allows teachers to assign specific videos and students to request access to videos, 43 % of survey respondents admitted to never asking their teachers to do so. Additionally, 84% said they were somewhat or not informed at all about the new restrictions.
Separately, Alta Vista High School teacher Joel Block said, “it’s real Byzantine getting YouTube into Canvas [the online platform where teachers assign work].
“There are certain videos, even though they’re technically not on YouTube, that have some sort of agreement with YouTube, and even though the website is not on a YouTube website, it defaults to YouTube when the student tries to access it and therefore is not available.”
Santa Barbara Teachers Association President York Shingle spoke in support of students who led the survey and used it to highlight dysfunction at the board level.
“These students out here are incredible, but they shouldn’t have to be here,” Shingle said. “Their voices shouldn’t be relegated to public comments…Students need to be included in your “tech with intent” rollout in meaningful ways.”
A few board members briefly weighed in on the survey and how it was conducted.
Board member Sunita Beall said, “It is difficult to hear that such a low percentage of high school students seem to be aware of the changes that were happening, and so that is an error on our part, if that is what actually happened.”
Banning said he had the opportunity to meet with Gallegos about the survey before the board meeting.
“I want to make it clear that we encouraged him to participate with our student board member [Victoria Martinez Peneranda] and to look into options that would have allowed something other than just us listening,” Banning said.
Maldonado reiterated that the student board member should be the one conducting outreach at schools.
“We do want to make sure that…we also have Victoria lead that effort because that was part of what she was selected to be on the board.”
