NORWALK, Conn. — Parent after parent stood up at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting to raise concerns about screens, artificial intelligence, and student data in Norwalk’s classrooms.
Seven speakers addressed the topic during public comment, some reading personal stories and others reading a joint letter signed by dozens of families.
Two letters, one message
Brandon Buck, a parent at Marvin Elementary, read most of a letter signed by 81 people, including one PTO group and families from 15 schools across the district. The letter says Norwalk’s 2024 AI policy was only 152 words long and never set age limits or clear rules.
“The board took an issue that literally redefines how children learn and handed down a 152-word green light with zero guardrails,” the letter states.
Krista Caters, also a Marvin parent, finished reading the letter. She said it asks the board to pause student-facing generative AI in kindergarten through eighth grade until an outside group reviews it. The letter also asks the district to audit how much screen time students already get and to bring any new AI rules back to the public before adopting them.
Marisa Lazo, who represents the group Schools Beyond Screens, said a separate petition she is circulating has 47 signatures as of Tuesday. She said her group is asking for the same pause on classroom AI tools.
“Families across Norwalk are independently converging on the same request: pause student-facing generative AI in kindergarten through eighth grade.”
Schools Beyond Screens Local Leader, Marisa Lazo
Lazo also pointed to comments made Sept. 12 by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who called on AI companies to slow down development, and said leaders from OpenAI, xAI and Google DeepMind said similar things.
“If the very architects of these systems are sounding that alarm, what evidentiary basis does NPS have for deciding that products built on this technology are safe enough to be around children?” Lazo said.
Parents describe daily struggles
Kelly Beth McNicholas, a parent of two at Concord Magnet School, said her children have had school-issued devices since kindergarten. She said it has been hard to keep her kids away from things like YouTube videos and games during the school day. She also said a power outage last year forced her child’s class to read by window light instead of finishing a math lesson because the lesson was only available on video.
“What I’m asking is for Norwalk to join the global movement that is finally leveraging decades of data to rein in or remove screens from classrooms.”
Norwalk Parent, Kelly Beth McNicholas
Christine Richmond, a parent of a fifth grader, said she does not always know what her daughter does on her school-issued email and Chromebook. She said her daughter described a screen-filtering tool called Linewize that blocks certain content, but said she had never heard of it before her daughter mentioned it. Richmond asked the board to create one clear, easy-to-find technology policy for parents.
Christina Symeonidis, a parent of a seventh grader and a second grader, said she chose to opt her older daughter out of one-to-one device use entirely. She said her daughter still gets some assignments that require a Chromebook anyway, and she wants the district to explain what skills those assignments actually teach that couldn’t be taught another way.
District response
According to letters read at the meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Digital Learning and Innovation Ralph Valenzisi has already met with concerned families and started a task force to discuss the issue. Board members thanked him for being responsive to emails from parents.
The board did not vote on any changes to technology or AI policy Tuesday night.
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