this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2025
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My public school -- that my children are basically required by law to attend, remember -- is badgering me to sign a consent form so they can have Chromebooks.
This fight is a lot fucking larger than mere individual boycotts!
And my kids school requires every parent to have a Google account to track progress and share information.
Earlier in my school years, we had to use Microsoft Office products. Then later on we were expected to use Google Drive, as they wanted to teach us what we can use without paying Microsoft.
At one point it was also mandatory to have a blog because the teacher was big on Web 2.0, and they of course pushed blogspot (Google). I think I went with managed wordpress instead, but may remember wrong.
What happens if you refuse?
They probably would have to find accommodation for you, although I’m sure it’d be very inconvenient. But still technically there.
As to if you refuse to have your child be issued a Chromebook and Google account, probably not much you can do, as they are providing everything.
My personal answer to this question is the same as if it were an employer issued mandatory Chromebook; me the employee (or my child the student) is a different entity than me the individual. Me the individual refuses to have anything to do with Google, and that’s enough of a fight for me.
They kill you!
cant you give your child a cheap laptop, or they require thier inhouse shitty ones, use only?
I don't know yet; I'm about to email the media coordinator to find out what happens when I refuse to sign the form.
My kids already have Raspberry Pi 400s (might upgrade them to 500s soon), and I have about half a dozen other computers (not including old retired stuff or my pile of other Raspberry Pis), all running Linux. This house is not at all lacking in technology, and I no longer tolerate proprietary shit in it.
What's really fucked up is that the school district makes all these decisions basically unilaterally -- not just for Chromebooks, but for other proprietary nonsense like ClassDojo and Remind and MySchoolBucks -- and just assumes every parent will be cool with unquestioningly entering contracts with all these third-party entities. And even worse, most parents are cool with it!
As someone from Russia, I grew up seeing movies where you all over there sue each other over unfortunate rude word.
Perhaps that last paragraph is where you really should try suing someone, no jokes.
We need a "freedom from corporations" clause to go with freedom of religion.
its probably datamining material for google and all these propietary companies.
They require that the kids use the Chromebooks and use Google accounts.
At the highschool I went to, there was some standardized testing (act, ap tests) done in locked down software installed on the chromebooks. Like instead of logging into your user, it was before login with no browser or anything. It sometimes let you have desmos and a small place to take notes.
they mustve started using chromebooks in the 2010s, we dint have any of that nonsense in the 2000s, although it was not much better otherwise.
Mine too, so I do agree with you the issue is larger.
But I believe it can start with individual boycotts.