LOWER MERION, Pa. (WPVI) — Hundreds of parents in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, are voicing their concerns about the district’s electronic device policy.<\/p>\n
During a community meeting held in late March, parents had a chance to speak with school officials about the district’s one-to-one laptop program.<\/p>\n
According to the district’s website,<\/a> the program began at the high school level in 2007 and was expanded to the middle school level after the pandemic.<\/p>\n The district says it “enables students to easily transition projects and research between home and school” by giving students 24\/7 access to the educational software and sites on their devices.<\/p>\n The website states that all 5th-grade students are issued a Chromebook that they will maintain until the 8th grade. Then, all 8th-grade students are issued a MacBook that they will use through high school.<\/p>\n Action News spoke with parents on Monday night who say they aren’t opposed to their children using technology, but they don’t want that technology controlling the classroom.<\/p>\n Yair Lev has started a petition called ‘Pencils over Pixels.’<\/a> He says 430 parents have signed it. They are asking the district to allow them to opt their children out of receiving school-issued Chromebooks or MacBooks.<\/p>\n “There’s no control,” Lev told Action News. “The kids are on the Chromebooks. And the vast majority of kids will find a way to bypass the protections and go to YouTube, and watch the videos, and play the computer games.”<\/p>\n Lev said he would like the district to create a process for families to opt out, offer a lower-tech education option, and hold a follow-up community meeting to discuss next steps.<\/p>\n Eleanor Stanford, the parent of a Lower Merion High School student, said her son has seen the impact technology has had in the classroom.<\/p>\n “He can see everybody around him using AI for a lot of assignments, and it’s just impossible for the teachers to police when the students are supposed to have their computers on,” she explained.<\/p>\n Action News also spoke with Pooja Garg, of Wynnewood, who has a middle school student in the district. She said her main concern is the lack of filters on the devices.<\/p>\n “It’s a free-for-all environment to some extent right now,” she said. “On the Chromebook, there really aren’t any filters. They can access absolutely anything on the internet.”<\/p>\n Right now, parents say they are waiting to hear back from school district officials.<\/p>\n When Action News reached out to school officials for comment, we were referred to remarks made by the superintendent at a policy meeting on Monday, April 13.<\/p>\n During the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Frank Ranelli spoke about his biggest takeaways from the community meeting held with parents in March.<\/p>\n “We’re concerned about screen time, so we’ll work with our teachers more and more to lessen that,” he said. “To make sure there’s more interaction, make sure there’s more playtime, make sure there’s more pen and paper.”<\/p>\n Dr. Ranelli said the district can also work with parents to restrict the use of electronic devices at home.<\/p>\n “Parents would be able to impose more filters, and students wouldn’t be able to go on YouTube when they walked in the house,” he explained.<\/p>\n