Legal

Aug 20, 2019

 The assistant principal pushed for the project when he noticed some kids weren't even socializing with other students anymore. 

Mounting frustration over student attentiveness led administrators at the San Mateo school, which is about 20 miles south of San Francisco, to institute the new policy this school year, which kicked off earlier this month.

"We could walk into a variety of classrooms, and kids would be on their cellphones anywhere from 5 seconds, checking a text, to 30 to 45 minutes at a time," Adam Gelb, assistant principal of San Mateo High School, told NBC Bay Area. "You're here to learn. You are here to work with your teachers and students, and we started getting away from that because of these devices and how addictive they can be."

KTRK Houston https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-high-school-becomes-largest-113254629.html

NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/california-high-school-found-students-cellphones-too-distracting-so-they-n1044636

The United Educators of San Francisco passed a Resolution on Safer Technology calling for information on reducing cell phone use to be posted in classrooms and hosted informational  webinars.  See Video

Originated in 1994 & Reviewed by Board of Mangers in 2005.

There is growing concern about the effects of electro-magnetic fields (EMFs). A large body of evidence indicates a connection between exposure to EM Fs and cancer. Some studies (for example, a study paid for by Southern California Edison) have not found a connection, but, more importantly, no study has concluded that EMFs do not cause or promote cancer.  California-State-PTA-Opposition-to-Cell-Towers-on-schools-.pdf (ehtrust.org) 

Stephen Shankland. March 18, 2019. 

Those who embrace disruption won’t have a business if economic damage means they don’t have any customers.  

The technology industry must realize that its marvelous advancements are also the source of profound anxiety and potentially disastrous societal changes, California Governor Gavin Newsom warned at a conference on AI at Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"There is an empathy gap in technology," Newsom said at a conference run by the new Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. With technology comes transition and dislocation, he said, and now with AI and automation, "There's an anxiety that is real."

The tech industry used to be an easier ally for politicians -- companies with strong brands that were important in consumers' lives. But relations have become strained with problems like Facebook enabling election interference, YouTube helping radicalize terrorists and company employees protesting military projects. No longer is it as easy to position new technology as an unalloyed boon for society. 

https://www.cnet.com/news/tech-suffers-an-empathy-gap-california-governor-gavin-newsom-warns/

In the United States, laws are launching government investigations into wireless exposures in schools, school districts are taking steps towards safer technology.  

• Several school districts (Petaluma, Montgomery County) have policies that tablets and notebook computers should be on tables (not laps)—prompted by parents raising the health issue of Wi-Fi in school.
• The Los Angeles school district prohibits school cell towers and has set a wireless exposure limit that is 10,000 times lower than FCC limits, recognising the existence of biological effects. 
• The Massachusetts Breast Cancer Association has released an educational curriculum  for students, elementary through high school. 

From Environmental Health Trust

June 13, 2019

The state of Oregon has passed SB 283 “A bill relating to exposure to radiation in schools in this state; and declaring an emergency”  Sen. Laurie Monnes-Anderson and advocate David Morrison have championed this issue for years.

This is the first bill in the United State with a focus on the health impact of wireless radiofrequency radiation in schools. During a March hearing, Morrison bought four boxes of documents with some of the thousands of independent studies concluding wireless radiation has biological effects. 

The Act states that the Oregon Health Authority shall:

• Review peer-reviewed, independently funded scientific studies of the health effects of exposure to microwave radiation, particularly exposure that results from the use of wireless network technologies in schools or similar environments; and
• Report the results of the review to an interim committee of the Legislative Assembly related to education not later than January 2, 2021.
• The review described in paragraph (a) of this subsection must, at a minimum, consist of a literature review of peer-reviewed, independently funded scientific studies that examine the health effects of exposure to microwave radiation on children.
• The Department of Education shall develop recommendations to schools in this state for practices and alternative technologies that would reduce students’ exposure to microwave radiation that the review described in subsection (1) of this section identifies as harmful.

Jordan Baker. March 31, 2019.

As classrooms across the country embrace digital textbooks, one Sydney school has declared the e-book era over and returned to the old-fashioned hard copy version because it improves comprehension and reduces distraction.  https://www.smh.com.au/education/major-distraction-school-dumps-ipads-returns-to-paper-textbooks-20190329-p5191r.html

 July 31, 2018. Hamza Shaban. 

When French students return to school in September, they’ll have to leave one of their most prized possessions at home — their smartphone.

French lawmakers on Monday passed legislation banning students as old as 15 from bringing smartphones and tablets to school, or at least requiring that they be turned off, according to the Agence France-Presse. Officials in support of the new rule described the policy as a way to shield children from addictive habits and to safeguard the sanctity of the classroom. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/31/france-bans-smartphones-school/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d58aff6e9244

 On 29 October 2020, the group launched a petition to the Geneva government (Grand Conseil) requesting a moratorium on the Department of Education's plan for digital education in primary school:

• Should the State finance the equipment of primary schools with digital tablets, interactive whiteboards and wireless networks when the added value of using this technology in education has not been demonstrated at all?
• What about the economic and ecological cost, and the damage to children's health? 

The group is not technophobic, but believe that a critical distance and a careful analysis of the social, environmental, financial and health costs of the use of digital technology by primary school students is necessary. Digital tools have multiple positive aspects, which should not be denied, but their potentially harmful or simply ineffective aspects must also be taken into account.   

Towards Better Health: Switzerland: Geneva: New Association "RUNE" Requests Moratorium on Department of Education's Plan for Use of Digital Technology in Primary School (mieuxprevenir.blogspot.com)