We are creating a movement. The tide has shifted, and we have seen a swell of community support, involvement, and creativity around screen-free interactions in our community. This letter has received 1000 signatures from parents, grandparents, students, teachers, and administrators in our district. Please join us!
Addressing academic performance, social interactions, mental health, & healthier habits
We are collecting petition signatures from CCUSD families, teachers, & staff to ask our school board to agendize this topic. Please sign and share with your CCUSD networks. Join us in the movement for phone-free schools in CCUSD.
Families & Educators Working Together
CC Families for Slow Tech is a group of families and educators in Culver City schools who have come together to advocate for cell-free time or reduced cell phone usage for our students both in and out of school. Recognizing the growing distractions and negative impacts that constant smartphone access can have on academic performance, social interactions, and mental health, we are working to raise awareness and promote healthier habits for all of our children. More face-to-face interaction; more real world exploring; more deep curiosity.
Who We Are
Get Involved!
Please join us for an upcoming event.
Join us at a school board meeting @ 6:00 pm & wear light blue:
June 10, 2025
June 24, 2025
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If you need help with talking points, reach out to: ccforslowtech@gmail.com
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Where: Culver City City Hall, Mike Balkman Chambers - 9770 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
UPDATE: At the May 27, 2025 school board meeting, we presented our letter asking the school board to agendize the creation of a district-wide phone-free bell-to-bell school policy. The board did vote to add this to the agenda for the June 10, 2025 meeting. We are continuing to collect petition signatures from CCUSD families, teachers, & staff who support this movement. Please sign and share with your CCUSD networks and join us at the June 10th school board meeting.
HOW TO SPEAK AT A BOARD MEETING:
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In person: City Hall @9770 Culver Blvd. Mike Balkman Chambers. Culver City, CA 90232
Zoom: log in will be distributed with agenda
Public Comments on items not on the agenda are generally limited to 2 or 3 minutes, depending on how many people are speaking. Please prepare in advance and try to be as brief as possible.
To speak during public comments on items not on the agenda:
In-Person: Complete a Speaker's Card and submit it to the superintendent's Executive Assistant. You can do this in person.
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Via Zoom: Join the zoom and use the "hand raise" feature AS SOON AS they announce this. We had speakers miss this opportunity last time, as it’s a short window of time.
La Ballona Open House
April 23, 2025
CCMS Open House
April 16, 2025
Lin Howe Open House
April 25, 2025
Resources
Flyers, research, podcasts, books, & more
Are you dreading summer screen-time battles? Here are some tips to make a plan this summer to help your kid grow, have fun and make mistakes!
By Jonathan Haidt
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness is a 2024 book by Jonathan Haidt which argues that the spread of smartphones, social media and overprotective parenting have led to a "rewiring" of childhood and a rise in mental illness.
"Our Kids Are the Least Flourishing Generation We Know Of": An interview with Jonathan Haidt
In the April 1, 2025 episode of The Ezra Klein Show, titled "Our Kids Are the Least Flourishing Generation We Know Of," Ezra Klein and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt discuss the potential reasons why current youth are struggling with mental health and well-being. The episode explores the impact of technology, parenting styles, and societal expectations on childhood development, suggesting that over-parenting and screen time may be hindering children's ability to flourish.
In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.
1. Work Deeply
2. Embrace Boredom
3. Quit Social Media
4. Drain the Shallows
In just 15 minutes your kids can be unplugged from their screens and outside on an adventure, all thanks to the ultimate parenting resource to help you connect with your kids and get out of the house! A creative collection of activities for families, Fifteen Minutes Outside is filled with 365 days of quality time, outdoor adventures, and unplugged activities that require little time, cash, or patience.
The Smart Talk is a free tool that helps caregivers and kids (ages five to 17) have positive, proactive technology conversations and set healthy digital limits together.
If we want our kids to be safe, kind and responsible online, we need to have ongoing conversations with them about:
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When and how they use their devices
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Ways to keep themselves safe
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How they are representing themselves online
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Richard Louv is a journalist and the author of ten books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, The Nature Principle, and Vitamin N. Translated into twenty languages, his books have helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature.
Internet Safety
Go Guardian on CCUSD Devices
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Our schools have just granted you access to GoGuardian Parent, a mobile app designed to provide parents/guardians insight and control over their students' online activity when on school-managed devices and accounts. First, the GoGuardian Parent app provides an overview of your children's online activity on school-managed devices and accounts - this overview includes the apps, extensions, documents, and websites your student visited. Second, GoGuardian Parent provides you with an additional set of internet controls that you can set for out-of-school hours. GoGuardian Parent was created to help provide students additional educational support and is a companion to the classroom engagement and internet filtering tools that our school uses.
What is included in this app:
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Top 5 overview of your student's online activity
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Any teacher interventions related to your student's online activity
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30-day overview of your student's online activity
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Ability to block websites on school-issued devices during out-of-school hours
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Ability to pause internet access on school-issued devices during out-of-school hours, either on-demand or at a scheduled time
To access the app, please follow the below instructions:
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Download the app via Apple Store or Google Play Store
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After the app is successfully downloaded and installed, open it up and enter the email address registered with the school. Note: If you forgot your registered email address, please reach out to your school administrator.
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Login/Check Email: Check your email on your phone for a link to log in to the app. Tap the "Verify your email", and it will take you straight to the app.
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Note: If you don't have access to your email through the device you used to log in, tap on "Login with verification code", and copy and paste the verification code from the email into the app.
More to come . . .
More to come . . .
Why Slow Tech?
"A 2024 Pew survey of teens ages 13-17 found that half said they were online “almost constantly."
"A wandering mind is also a creative mind."
"Most teen girls (57%) now say that they experience persistent sadness or hopelessness (up from 36% in 2011)."