About

In a Nutshell . . .

Responsible IPad Use in Classrooms, is a group of Petaluma, CA parents who are banding together to protect their children from the current use and configuration of Wireless Access Points (WAPs), iPads, Chromebooks, laptops and other wirelessly-connected devices that leads to continuous, immediate and latent toxic hazards in Petaluma City Schools District (PCSD) classrooms.

Since February, 2016, various members of our group have tried to engage the PCSD School Board Members, the PCDS Superintendent, Gary Callahan, the PCSD Director of Technology, Lori Deen, and several PCSD Principals in genuine conversations with parents to define reasonable solutions that will eliminate the PCSD's current practice of pumping a known carcinogen into every PCSD K-12 classroom for 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.

We have asked for meetings with the Superintendent, for the PCSD School Board to make this an agendized item at a future board meeting per CA Education Code 35145.5, and for the PCSD to simply to turn off the WAPs, in consideration of our children's health. In the last three months, nothing substantial has changed.

Radio-frequency ElectroMagnetic Fields (RF/EMF) microwave radiation from any man-made source has been declared a known carcinogen world-wide since May, 2011. Now, four full years later, in May 2016, after the PCSD spent nearly $5 Million of taxpayer money on purchasing, installing and configuring wireless equipment throughout the PCSD, the United States National Toxicology Program (NTP), part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), released substantial scientific proof of its a 15+ year, $25 million investigation, the largest and most complete toxicology study ever completed. Dr. Ronald L. Melnick, the lead designer of the NTP study stated on 6/1/16:

So, what's the message from all of this? We tested the hypothesis that [radio-frequency] radiation could not cause health effects and we feel that the hypothesis has now been disproved because these results clearly show that that [radio-frequency] radiation can cause adverse health effects. . .

The finding of increases of gliomas and schwannomas of the heart in rats exposed to the radio-frequency radiation provides consistency with the epidemiological reports of increases of gliomas and acoustic neuromas, which are tumors of Shwann cells among humans exposed to [radio-frequency] radiation. Those were the findings that provided the basis for the IARC evaluation of 2011, because the same cells that became cancerous in rats are the cells that have been reported to develop into tumors in [human] epidemiological studies . . .

The incidence of tumors is not the measurement of risk alone. Risk is determined from both the dosimetry, which is the absorbed power [multiplied by] time [of exposure], versus the tumor response . . . because of the large number of [exposed human] users worldwide, even a small increase in risk at exposure propensities that may be close to what humans experience, could result in a large number of people developing a RF-radiation-induced tumor with long-term exposure.

Listen for yourself to the eminent scientists who designed and executed the $25 Million NTP/NIEHS Radiofrequency Radiation study:

1. 5/27/16 audio recording of NTP/NIEHS RFR Study Results conference call

John Bucher, Ph.D.
Associate Director, National Toxicology Program (NTP)

Michael Wyde, Ph.D.
National Toxicology Program NTP/NIEHS RFR Study Director

2. 6/01/16 audio recording of NTP/NIEHS RFR Study Results conference call

Ronald L. Melnick, PhD.
Retired, Former lead designer of the NTP/NIEHS RFR Study

Video evidence of many entries into the public record from 2013 to 2016 proves that the problems of RF/EMF microwave radiation causing adverse health effects were well-known by the PCSD Board Members, Superintendent and Technology Director back in 2013 and 2014 — well before the PCSD decided to spend nearly $5 million of taxpayer's funds to pump a known carcinogen into every PCSD K-12 classroom 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

For many good reasons, including . . .

• the health of the PCSD students (our children)
• the health of the future children of these PCSD students (our future granchildren)
• the health of any people, plants or animals living or working within 1,500 feet of any PCSD school
• the PCSD's financial and insurance liabilites, if the PCSD continues its current wireless practices with the full-knowledge of the substantial scientific proof from the May, 2016 NTP Study since the PCSD board members, Superintendent and Technology Director were noticed about these NTP study results on 5/27/16 . . .

. . . parents, we must now band together to stop the PCSD from irradiating everyone on and near its school campuses and then get the PCSD to implement the simple, low cost, solutions described here, to protect the health and safety of PCSD students, of PCSD employees, of parent volunteers at PCSD schools, of the fetuses of any pregnant teachers or volunteers and of nearby Petaluma residents. Importantly, these solutions will preserve 80% or more of the PCSD's $5 million investment — by enabling the PCSD-issued iPads, Chromebooks, laptops and other equipment to connect to the internet via USB-to-Ethernet adapters and Ethernet cables.

Reponsible iPad Use in Classrooms supports technology that is configured and used in ways that protect our children on Petaluma's K-12 school campuses — and at home.

The Problem Illustrated . . .

False Confidence Has Misled Many

. . . including the PCSD Board Members, Superintendent and Technology Director.

• The PCSD repeatedly violated the California Public Records Act (CA Government Code Sections 6250-6270.5) in 2013 and 2014 by not providing properly requested records regarding the PCSD's plans for installing and configuring wireless equipment throughout PCSD schools. These installations proceeded without providing full disclosure to the parents of the well-known hazards of RF/EMF microwave radiation and, therefore, the PCSD did this without informed parental consent.


• The PCSD is doing much of the same in 2016: in response to a 5/24/16 CA Public Records Request for the "records that evidence the purchase, configuration and installation of any PCSD wireless equpment from 1/1/14 to 5/24/16 including but not limited to Wireless Access Points (WAPs), iPads, Chromeboosk, laptops and any other equipment that connects to the PCSD network wirelessly. For each WAP, we wish to inspect the records of each WAP's current location, model number, equipment purchase price, software purchase price, installation cost, date of purchase, date of installation and operational characteristics of the antennas in these WAPS." . . . the PCSD responded by letter on 6/3/16: "As to the request for information about the location and configuration of wireless access points, that request is denied."


• Denied? There is precedence of the public receiving maps of planned WAP locations in 2013 and these WAP locations are critical data that every parent needs to know: they need to know how close their children are to the various WAPs that spew RF/EMF micowave radiation, a known toxic emission and carcinogen, into the classrooms for the entire school day.


• The PCSD ignored the previously approved 2008-2013 Technology plan when writing and approving the 2013-2018 Technology Plan by not including a student safety section in the current technology plan — even though there was a student safety section in the previous plan and parents strongly objected to the removal of the safety section. The parents' objections were entereed in the public record.


• The PCSD is currently violating CA Government Code Sections 32060-32066, which requires schools to eliminate Group 2B carcinogens (such as RF/EMF microwave radiation, DDT or lead paint) from K-6 classrooms. The PCSD's voluntary use and configuration of the WAPs and school-issued iPads for the PCSD one-to-one Student:iPad program results in classroom hazards. A simple change in the use and configuration of this equipment could easily eliminate RF/EMF microwave radiation, the carcinogen, from the classrooms.


• One size cannot fit all for internet content filters. The needs for internet filtering vary signicantly for each student age group and no filter service could ever keep up with the pace of world-wide publishing on the internet. The following question needs to be answered by each parent: At what age is it appropriate for their child to view explicit content? It is at that age, the parent should then give their consent for their child to participate in the PCSD iPad program.


• The PCSD is not yet offering a clear way for parents to opt-out of its one-to-one student iPad program. The PCSD iPad Handbook's section titled "Opting Out" states that "All students are required to accept the iPads issued by PCSD". This is ludicrous. It is every parent's right to opt their children out of the PCSD's one-to-one Student:iPad program, just as it is every parent's right to opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium testing program. All a parent needs to do is write a letter to their principal.


• On 3/7/16, Mr. Gary Callahan, the PCSD Superintendent committed to a 3/30/16 meeting with parents to discuss solutions for the classroom hazards of RFR, but he cancelled the meeting on 3/17/16 by letter, and has since refused to return any phone calls or emails and continues to block meetings with himself or PCSD Technology Director, Lori Deen. Did Mr. Callahan get struck by lightning?