Schools are beginning to throw out expired Chromebooks, creating 'piles of electronic waste,' report says

[Liberal junk]

Probably all full of tranny porn

Chromebooks create tons of e-waste when they expire, a US PIRG Education
Fund report found.

Replacement parts for Chromebooks are difficult to find between different
designs, per the report.

US PIRG is suggesting Google extend software support for Chromebooks to
make them last longer.

Chromebooks, the budget laptops running Google software, are creating a
lot of e-waste, according to a report from the US Public Interest Research
Group (US PIRG) Education Fund.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools around the US
bought Chromebooks for students to aid in remote learning. Chromebooks are
far cheaper than MacBooks or other high-end laptops. But, three years
later, those Chromebooks are reaching their expiration dates, leading to
more e-waste, according to the report.

An estimated 31 million Chromebooks sold around the world during the first
year of the pandemic contributed to around 9 million tons of CO2
emissions, US PIRG found in its report. Doubling the software lifetime for
Chromebooks would equal removing 900,000 cars from the road, and could
save taxpayers $1.8 billion, the report suggests.

"Really, this is an industry-wide problem, and Google has the opportunity
to lead on sustainability by making Chromebooks last longer," Lucas
Gutterman, the author of the report, told Insider.

A Google spokesperson told Insider the tech giant is working with its
"hardware partners to increase the years of guaranteed support Chromebooks
receive, and since 2020, we now provide eight years of automatic updates,
up from five years in 2016. We also are always working with our device
manufacturing partners to increasingly build devices across segments with
post-consumer recycled and certified materials that are more repairable,
and over time use manufacturing processes that reduce emissions."

"Regular Chromebook software updates add new features and improve device
security every four weeks, allowing us to continuously iterate on the
software experience while ensuring that older devices continue to function
in a secure and reliable manner until their hardware limitations make it
extremely difficult to provide updates," the spokesperson said.

The report also points to how finding replacement parts for Chromebooks
from different manufacturers, like HP, can make repairs more difficult.

One example in the report points to how the bezels, or the plastic border
around the screen, for the Dell 11 3100 Non-Touch Chromebook and the Dell
11 3110 Non-Touch Chromebook are designed differently, making them non-
compatible.

Gutterman told Insider that the incompatibility is not sustainable for
schools who need to repair parts across different models, because they
have to spend more money buying new laptops.

For a $250 Chromebook 11a, HP's website only shows two available parts,
the report found, but doesn't include parts for repairs such as broken
screens and keyboards. And accessories that are offered by HP are
expensive, the report says, noting that "the combined price of these parts
is more than half the cost of a new laptop."

The report suggests Google, which makes the operating system for
Chromebooks, make software support last longer so Chromebooks don't have
to be thrown out as soon, and called for Chromebook manufacturers like HP
and Asus to make replacement parts easier to find to make more repairs
possible.

HP nor Asus immediately responded to Insider's request for comment.

"Moving forward, these companies should design Chromebooks to last by
improving device durability, repairability and sustainability," the US
PIRG report says.

Gutterman told Insider that, "we just can't afford to keep churning out
technology at this rate, whether it's Chromebooks or laptops or phones."

"The consequences for getting this right are really big," Gutterman said.
"We have seen the amount of 1:1 programs, where schools give each student
a laptop, is really on the rise, so balancing use and sustainability is
key when you have this many devices given to students across the country."

Read the original article on Business Insider

<https://news.yahoo.com/schools-beginning-throw-expired-chromebooks-
190112422.html>

[Democrat stupid]

Keep the Democrat voters STUPID! THAT'S OUR GOAL!

Misha Karigaca was a middle school principal when the Oakland Unified
School District revamped its disciplinary policies in 2015 to end willful
defiance suspensions.

Instead of sending a student out of class for a minor infraction, teachers
were encouraged to de-escalate by talking to the child quietly or writing
them a note in class.

“We're not just going to move the problem and kick the can down the road
to somebody else,” Karigaca said.

The discipline models could be replicated throughout California public
schools under legislation sponsored by State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-
Berkeley). Senate Bill 274 would permanently extend the ban on willful
defiance suspensions in middle and high schools after 2025. Current law
bans these suspensions permanently for students in kindergarten through
fifth grade.

When the earlier ban was put in place, some teachers said their classrooms
became chaotic because students didn't see consequences for misbehavior.
Now, even some educators who support the policy say they understand why
teachers may worry that they do not have the resources to safely implement
it at higher grade levels with older, and sometimes physically larger,
students.

“If you're not taught basic tools to support and manage a classroom, then
you are going to see behaviors escalate to a point where you might feel a
little loss of control or safety in the environment that you're supposed
to support,” said Justine Bernacet, the lead seventh-grade teacher at KIPP
Sol Academy, a charter middle school in East LA.

She supports the bill, but other educators are cautious.

The California Teachers Assn., one of the most influential interest groups
at the state Capitol, withheld support for the bill unless it is amended.
The union declined to say what changes it supports. A spokesperson for the
state's other large teacher union, the California Federation of Teachers,
also said it won't support the bill unless it's changed.

Skinner amended the bill on April 10 to specify that teachers could still
remove disruptive and defiant students from the classroom. They would be
placed in a separate room for the period with other children. The single-
class suspension could continue the following day, but the child wouldn’t
be prohibited from attending school entirely.

“Those kids who might be acting in such a way that causes a suspension are
often the very kids that we really need to keep in school,” Skinner said
during a hearing last week.

Oakland is among a handful of school districts — including Los Angeles,
Pasadena and San Francisco — that have already ended willful defiance
suspensions, which punish students for nonviolent acts such as ignoring
the teacher, wearing a hoodie in class, talking back to a teacher or
disrupting the class by tapping their feet. These disciplinary actions
disproportionately affect Black, Latino and indigenous students, leading
to higher dropout rates in these communities, according to a state report.

SB 274 would also prohibit the suspension and expulsion of students due to
tardiness or truancy. Educators could still suspend students for more
severe actions, such as physical violence, possession or use of drugs,
theft or bullying.

“Excluding students (for low-level offenses) gives the teacher a false
sense of command of their class,” said Renee Thomas, a Spanish middle
school teacher at San Diego Unified, where these suspensions have already
been banned. “Instead of tearing down that relationship, we need to build
them up so the student knows that we care and they understand that there
is a place for them.”

In 2014, the Pasadena Unified School District eliminated willful defiance
and class disruption as reasons to suspend students. Julianne Reynoso, the
district's assistant superintendent of student wellness and support
services, said the district adopted a trauma-informed approach to address
the root cause of student behaviors.

Under the new policy, suspension is a last resort, with a limit on days
spent out of school, followed by a community reentry plan, she said.

Reynoso said suspension rates “declined significantly” in the last few
years because of these efforts. Pasadena Unified in the 2021-22 school
year had a 3.4% overall suspension rate with Black students suspended at
an 8.4% rate. Ten years earlier, the district's suspension rate was 8.8%,
and Black students were suspended at a rate of 17.3%.

“Willful defiance had to come to an end in our district so that we could
focus and center our efforts on other means to support our children,”
Reynoso said.

Oakland Unified’s revamped discipline model also emphasizes alternative
methods to removing students from school such as restorative practices,
harm repair and counseling.

The school district’s trajectory to that policy was the result of legal
action. In 2012, four Black students filed a complaint with the U.S.
Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for racial harassment
and discrimination. The federal agency investigated the district and found
that Black children were more frequently and harshly punished than other
students.

“We've learned that suspending kids for defiance and disruption wasn't
changing behaviors, it was just pushing the behavior away for a few days,”
Karigaca said.

Since the district banned willful defiance suspensions, Karigaca said his
office gets a little over 100 expulsion referrals per year. Before that,
it was about 500 each year, he said.

Skinner’s latest bill builds on Assemblyman Roger Dickinson’s (D-
Sacramento) AB 420, which in 2014 eliminated willful defiance as a reason
for suspension or expulsion in grades 1-3. Five years later, Skinner’s SB
419 permanently banned it in grades K-5 and in middle school until 2025.

The Charter Schools Development Center was one of the only groups to
oppose expanding the legislation in 2019. Eric Premack, the group’s
executive director, said that while they haven’t taken an official
position on SB 274 yet, they are uncertain that this bill will improve
state academics.

“We are very much concerned about the academic achievement gaps for
several student subgroups, especially African American students,” Premack
said in an email. “Given the data, however, we’re a bit skeptical that
this legislation, however well-intended, will move the needle on closing
achievement gaps.”

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

<https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/california-lawmakers-consider-banning-
willful-defiance-suspensions-from-schools/ar-
AA1afUwe?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=f0215713059347ac8e4525748db60de5&ei=13>