DERBY — A dad is frustrated by new technology in Derby schools.
The district started supplying iPads to the middle school two years ago, and students started using them full time this past year.
“I just wonder how many parents are out there in a school with over 1,000 kids, how many parents don’t know that their kids have access to this stuff and this is what they’re doing,” Chad said.
We’re only identifying the parent as Chad to protect the identity of his child, who is a 12-year-old in the school.
Chad said educators are not regulating the iPads enough. His student has often been easily distracted. At times, her grades have suffered.
“You see that during school hours. It’s at 1:00 in the afternoon and she’s supposed to be in a math class and instead what she’s doing is that she’s Tweeting somebody,” he said.
The use of social media has frustrated him the most. He feels kids her age are too young to use these platforms, where she’s been exposed to pornography — and she’s only accessing these sites at school.
“Friends and followers that she has that have sent pornographic material, definitely adult content material… she may not be participating in, but it’s right there on her home screen,” he said. “I didn’t want to dig any deeper. I don’t want to know what else might be in there.”
Derby Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Heather Bohaty tells KAKE News that the schools are looking into the parent’s case, and it will respect the rights of parents.
She said the district has its own set of rules and is CIPA-compliant.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, “The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted by Congress in 2000 to address concerns about children’s access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet. CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries,” it states. “In early 2001, the FCC issued rules implementing CIPA and provided updates to those rules in 2011.”
Yet, Chad said the school is violating its own policy. He said administrators have told him that they approve of students using some social media. Chad said the use of sites like Twitter and Facebook comes with its own risks, and that he doesn’t want his child exposed to something too young.
“It’s like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbits face and expecting them not to take a bite. If you give it to them and you don’t restrict it and there’s no oversight for it, kids are going to screw up,” he said. “It’s disappointing to see that we don’t have more oversight and the school district doesn’t take our kid’s safety as serious as we do as parents.”