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# Parents press Santa Monica-Malibu school board to rein in classroom screen time
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/parents-press-santa-monica-malibu-school-board-to-rein-in-classroom-screen-time/
- Published: 2026-09-25T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T16:00:00.000Z
- Author: Maaz Alin
- Tags: Government & Politics, SMMUSD

Parents urged the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board on Sept. 17 to tighten limits on student technology. They described young children watching movies instead of going to recess, school Chromebooks that open onto YouTube, and little clarity about which apps students use.

The testimony came as the board took up revisions to the district's mobile device policy, first presented Sept. 3, which already restricts student phone use during the school day. So many people signed up to speak on the phone policy that the board voted to consolidate public comment, moving the general comment period forward so all speakers could be heard in sequence.

Much of the testimony focused less on phones than on the laptops and tablets schools give students.

"Screen use is by far the most risky and potentially consequential tool that's used in the classroom, and it feels like it's what we receive the least specific communication about," said Laura Gersinhorn, a former middle school teacher and the parent of a second grader.

"It doesn't feel like it's consistent across schools, across grade levels, across teachers," she said, calling for a districtwide instructional [technology](https://www.smdp.com/how-california-can-do-data-centers-differently-and-win-back-community-trust/) policy. "It's kind of a black box — we hear things from our 7-year-old, but we're not really sure what the apps do or what they are."

Sylvia Ewald, whose children are in transitional kindergarten and first grade at Franklin Elementary, said screens were replacing physical activity.

"My kids are coming home talking about watching movies instead of doing recess, watching videos instead of doing PE," Ewald said. She added that one class watched "Angry Birds 2," "which is a sequel to a movie about a game on a phone." One of her daughters told her she preferred school to aftercare because "I get to watch videos in TK," Ewald said.

Ewald said tablets given to students who finish early create the wrong incentive: "They are rushing through their assignments so that they can get on the tablets to play learning games."

Molly Reid, who has children in sixth and eighth grades, said the district's consent form for YouTube access on school-issued Chromebooks misleads families. She said parents who chose "allow" believed it was required for classwork.

"Deny still lets students watch teacher-assigned videos through Google Classroom Slides," Reid said. "Allow gives students non-instructional YouTube subject only to the district's filters, and those filters are not adequate."

She asked the district to send every family a clear explanation of the options. "Second, and more importantly," she said, the district should "reset all accounts to deny and eliminate allow altogether."

Todd Grabarski, a second-grade parent who represents the local chapter of Schools Beyond Screens, said the group had drafted a proposed technology use policy at Superintendent Antonio M. Shelton's request, backed by peer-reviewed research. He said the proposal is not anti-technology. It would limit devices to specific instructional uses, with exceptions for students with individualized education programs or Section 504 plans.

Grabarski criticized spending on "unproven edtech products that are not supported by any evidence as to their efficacy when that money could be going to supporting teachers." Restricting YouTube, he said, "does not mean that students would be unable to access videos that are tied to their curriculum."

Benjamin Goldman, a TK parent at [Roosevelt Elementary](https://roosevelt.smmusd.org/?ref=smdp.com), said a January school tour showed first graders on tablets and older students running Google searches topped by AI-generated summaries. "It's harder to write than to type, and it's harder to paint than to prompt, but writing and painting develop our brains in ways that typing, prompting, and googling never will," he said.

Christina Stewart, a software engineer with a child in preschool, asked, "Why would we employ the same tactics that made kids unable to focus outside school, and why would we hijack their attention with school-issued devices?"

Viola Maya, a parent and health care worker, questioned the cost of replacing broken Chromebooks. "What's wrong with paper and books?" she asked. "We spend millions on the devices that constantly get broken and replaced."

Not every speaker wanted less technology. Evan McGee, PTA president at Will Rogers Elementary, runs an artificial intelligence company. He said his son, a middle school student, is less distracted since phones went into Yondr pouches.

"The devices in the Yondr pouches have really made a big difference in the classroom," McGee said. Still, he said of classroom technology, "the intentionality behind it is the thing that matters the most."

Board Vice President Laurie Lieberman, a member of the district's technology working group, said the board had heard the comments. She added that open-session rules bar a formal response on items not on the agenda.

Frank Dussan, the district's director of student services, presented the phone policy revisions at the board's Sept. 3 meeting. The updated policy states that phones can have both beneficial and harmful effects on student learning and well-being. It also cross-references the district's discipline policies for students who misuse devices at school.

The accompanying regulation adds Olympic High School to the "Away for the Day" approach already used at elementary and middle schools, where students turn off their phones and stow them away for the school day. Santa Monica and Malibu high schools follow a "bell to bell" rule, with phones stored during each class period.

State law requires the board to review the policy at least every five years. The policy was last revised in November 2024.

The board approved its consent calendar, which included the phone policy item, on a motion by board member Maria Leon-Vazquez, with a procedural abstention tied to absences at prior meetings. It also heard an update on roughly $480 million in active and recently completed construction projects.