ARDMORE, Pa. (WPVI) — The Lower Merion School Board voted Monday night to repeal the district’s current technology policy in favor of creating a new one.<\/p>\n
The vote was met with heavy criticism and backlash from dozens of parents who attended the meeting to continue pushing for the right to opt out of the district’s 1:1 policy, which provides district-issued Chromebooks or iPads to students.<\/p>\n
For months, parents in Lower Merion have voiced concerns about their children having access to those devices.<\/p>\n
They say they are worried about the impacts of excessive screen time.<\/p>\n
Similar conversations are being had in school districts across the country, including in Los Angeles and Arlington, Virginia.<\/p>\n
One young student said to the school board at Monday’s meeting, “I don’t want to spend the majority of my school day on a computer. I want to be taught by a teacher, and use real books and hand-written notes.”<\/p>\n
Erin Amini, a pediatrician and mother to Lower Merion students, said, “One-to-one devices are not educational. They are a distraction and unsafe in the hands of our underdeveloped kids.”<\/p>\n
Lower Merion’s technology policy had stated that if parents wanted to opt their children out of receiving district-issued digital devices, the district would do its best to make accommodations for those students.<\/p>\n
However, school board member Anna Shurak said that is not how the policy worked and that it is not possible for students to opt out.<\/p>\n
Monday night, the board voted to repeal the current policy, which included the mention of an ‘opt out’ option.<\/p>\n
Abby Lerner Rubin was one of two board members to vote against the repeal.<\/p>\n
“Repealing this, repealing these policies, would go against our best practice when we don’t have another policy to stand up,” said Rubin.<\/p>\n
Shurak said the repeal is necessary to move forward.<\/p>\n
“By not repealing that policy, it does not allow educators or our administrators to do what’s necessary to enact the change the community has been asking for,” she said.<\/p>\n
Shurak said this vote will allow them to discuss and move ahead with a new technology proposal.<\/p>\n
That proposal states technology won’t be used for classroom instruction for students in kindergarten through 2nd grade.<\/p>\n
It also states students won’t be issued an individual device until the 5th grade, and they won’t be required to take it home until 7th grade.<\/p>\n
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