"AI or Opt-Out": How One Mom Took Her Kids Off School Chromebooks (with Julie Frumin)

What happens when a school-issued Chromebook starts talking to your child—without permission?

In this episode of Scrolling 2 Death, Nicki is joined by Julie Frumin, a mental health professional, mom, and education safety advocate in Southern California, who shares her shocking experience navigating school-issued devices, hidden AI chatbots, and a system that told her she had only two choices: accept AI on her children’s devices—or turn them in entirely.

Julie walks us through:

• How her elementary-aged daughter was exposed to inappropriate content during school recess
• How an AI chatbot appeared unprompted on her middle schooler’s Chromebook, offering to do his homework
• Why schools claim parents cannot legally opt out of devices in California
• The hidden data collection, surveillance, and lack of transparency inside EdTech platforms
• The intimidation parents face when raising concerns with districts and school boards
• Why “teaching kids to use tech responsibly” ignores brain development and addiction science

We also dig into the bigger picture: Why EdTech is replacing teachers, how school budgets are being diverted to software contracts, and why parents deserve transparency, consent, and the right to refuse technology that doesn’t serve their children.

Julie shares practical advice for parents who want to push back—starting with teachers, navigating principals and school boards, and getting involved in statewide policy efforts, including proposals to:

• Require full transparency and parental consent for EdTech
• Pause AI use in K–8 classrooms
• Restore paper-and-pencil learning and assessments
• Move toward distraction-free, developmentally appropriate schools

This is an essential conversation for any parent who’s been told, “This is just how school works now.”

Because it doesn’t have to be.

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Resources, research, and advocacy links mentioned in this episode are available here:

• Parent Templates to start conversations with your school, organized by Tech-Safe Learning
• Fit for Purpose by Faith Bonninger
• Distraction Free Schools California
• Distraction Free Schools (US)
• Interviews with neuroscientist Jared Cooney-Horvath here and here
• Schools Beyond Screens (LAUSD Coalition)
• Book Reco: Screen Damage
• Book Reco: Digital Delusion by Jared Cooney-Horvath
• Join The Heat is On parent group to take action