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Parents ask Westfield schools to restrict unsupervised Chromebook access, limit YouTube and add AI guardrails
Summary
A coalition of parents (Parents for Mindful Tech) presented more than 300 signatures and urged the board to prohibit recreational screen use, implement whitelisting and monitoring of YouTube on district Chromebooks, audit technology use, and set developmental guardrails for generative AI access.
At the June 16 Westfield Board of Education meeting a coalition of parents, organized as 'Parents for Mindful Tech,' asked the board to limit recreational Chromebook use, remove or tightly control YouTube access on district devices, conduct a public technology audit, and adopt policies to manage generative AI access for students.
Roshni Charles introduced the coalition and said the group had gathered more than 300 signatures from parents, educators and local leaders. Parents described recurring incidents of elementary students accessing inappropriate YouTube content on district Chromebooks and said that unsupervised device use was widespread. "These Chromebooks are not just something to be monitored at school. They cause problems at aftercare, in our homes, and at sporting events," parent Laura Cohen said.
Speakers asked the district to implement technical controls such as whitelists that block general YouTube while allowing vetted channels, to remove unsupervised home or recreational access to district devices, and to consider returning some instruction to supervised computer-lab environments. Several speakers said the district currently provides intermediate students access to Google Gemini on district devices and urged staged, developmentally appropriate access with teacher scaffolding rather than unrestricted availability for younger students.
Parents also urged the board to prohibit assignments that normalize social-media-style tasks for younger students (for example, simulated Instagram or TikTok assignments), to adopt a district-wide policy limiting recreational screen use in school, and to convene a technology-audit committee to review apps, time-on-device and safety settings.
Board-level actions that evening were procedural and did not change device-management policy. Parents asked for committee follow-up and a public response from administration describing planned steps and timelines.
What happens next: Parents requested a formal review, prompt policy changes to restrict unsupervised device access and YouTube, and staged AI access policies. The transcript shows several parents pressing for immediate administrative action and for the creation of a formal district response.
