A group of Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) parents have banded together to work toward reducing screen time for elementary school students.
The group, Promoting Alternatives to Unhealthy Screen Exposure (PAUSE), began meeting formally this school year. Dr. Rashelle Hakak, a clinical psychologist and founding member of PAUSE, said the idea to organize came when she and other members recognized the pervasive parental concern about screen time, both in and out of school.
“It was basically a bunch of parents who wanted change, and so we just started meeting,” she said. “We kind of created a checklist of what we wanted to get done.”
The group’s goals include encouraging parents not to provide their children with smartphones before eighth grade, developing a comprehensive understanding of how screens are used in BHUSD classrooms and pushing for change where necessary.
PAUSE has signed a pledge with Wait Until 8th, a national campaign encouraging school communities to commit to not giving students smartphones until eighth grade.
In terms of getting a clear picture of how screens—including iPads, tablets and laptops—are used in classrooms, Hakak said that PAUSE hopes to work closely with BHUSD officials.
“We’re really trying to implement change and work more closely with the school district in a positive way,” she said.
Dr. Dustin Seemann, the district’s assistant superintendent, education services said BHUSD officials share these goals.
“My work with PAUSE is really around ensuring that we’re protecting our students’ social-emotional health and making sure that we are allowing them an environment in education to be able to focus on their academics,” he said.
According to Seemann, Beverly Hills elementary school students spend an approximate average of 30 minutes per week on i-Ready, an online reading and math program that offers personalized instruction and diagnostics. Students receive approximately 1,590 minutes of instruction per week in total.
“One of the myths when we launched i-Ready as an assessment diagnostic tool for differentiated learning [was that students] were always plugged in,” he said. “It’s actually incorrect … it’s really only 30 minutes in the week.”
Seemann also said that the program provides benefits to students who may be at different levels of reading and math. The technology is able to offer students a chance, for example, to read the same story or passage in class but at different levels.
“Our kids don’t know that one kid may be reading at a higher level than the other kid,” he said. “They just know that they’re reading the same story … the differentiation piece has really been a game changer for education, period.”
Some parents with PAUSE disagree about the positive effects of screens. Speaking at the BHUSD Board’s May 13 meeting, Dr. Jane Tavyev Asher, a child neurologist and founding member of PAUSE, said that neurological research has shown a connection between handwriting and reading capabilities that deteriorates if students use laptops or tablets instead.
“If you type the information, it does not connect the same structures in the brain together as it does if you write it,” she said. “I really urge you … to please not have any iPads in the classroom at all at those young ages … definitely not in pre-K, not in K, not in first grade.”
There has been recent concern as well among parents over what students are able to access on their school-issued computers. Also speaking at the May 13 board meeting, Dr. Pantea Farhadi, a BHUSD parent, said her 8-year-old son was “exposed to sexual content” online.
“His teacher placed him out of the classroom unattended with an iPad,” she said.
Seemann said he was aware of the incident, which occurred when the student viewed a Wikipedia page with a graphic illustration, and that officials addressed it immediately.
“As soon as we realized that was a potential threat, we were able to shut that [page] off and close it off from the student elementary devices,” he said. “We will consistently put student safety at the forefront of the conversation.”
Hakak said this type of incident speaks to a disconnect between the district office and the classrooms.
“I don’t think they’re fully aware that the children, during any free time, that they’re allowed to be on their computers,” she said. “They’re unsupervised on a screen.”
