Parents and educators urge Mount Lebanon board to limit devices and adopt bell-to-bell phone bans
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Summary
During public comment, numerous parents and educators urged the board to reduce classroom EdTech reliance, provide clearer vetting and transparency for digital platforms, and adopt a bell-to-bell phone ban; speakers cited research, personal experience, and examples of inappropriate or addictive content on school devices.
Dozens of residents spoke during the public-comment period on March 16 urging the Mount Lebanon School District to curb student access to phones and rethink its use of educational technology.
Christine Sorensen Griffin, a Mount Lebanon resident and founder of Libo Unplugged, urged the board to adopt a "bell-to-bell" phone-free policy and noted pending Pennsylvania legislation and public endorsements she said include Governor Josh Shapiro and the PSEA. "Mount Lebanon has the opportunity to be a leader and start it this coming school year," she said.
Multiple parents and local academics offered similar concerns. Ashley London, a law professor, criticized current EdTech platforms and cited what she called excessive district spending on technology: "Please consider getting rid of EdTech and saving that money and putting it back in education," London said, also asserting that some programs (she singled out IXL) are "pedagogically unsound." Dr. Paloma Rago, a parent and public policy professor, proposed phasing out individual student devices in elementary and middle schools and consolidating computing into supervised labs, presenting potential savings and claiming technology hardware and license costs approach $1.8 million per year in the budget.
Other speakers gave specific examples parents and teachers have encountered: Heidi Nabala cited studies favoring paper-based reading for comprehension and said inappropriate games have been accessible on district devices; Leon Hortensius asked the district to use GoGuardian data to monitor website usage and block harmful or time-wasting sites more rapidly. Several parents described classroom and homework disruptions tied to gamified platforms and said teachers sometimes feel constrained by district-mandated tools.
Board members and administrators did not enact immediate policy changes during the meeting. Administration representatives acknowledged the concerns and said the district is reviewing technology use, filter efficacy and budgets. Miss Connolly and Superintendent Doctor Fries encouraged continued public dialogue and noted the budget process and upcoming forums that could inform decisions about program funding.
Where this could go next: parents requested clearer EdTech vetting and opt-out options, more consistent recess/no-screen enforcement, and exploration of bell-to-bell phone policies. The board has scheduled further budget meetings and may use the budget process to evaluate device and license spending; any policy change would be pursued through the board’s standard policy-review and adoption processes.
