This is worth a read, even if Byars and the BOE won’t:

Dear Amity High School,
My name is (name redacted for privacy) and I’m in 6th [grade.] I’m really excited because in a few years I get to come to high school. My babysitter goes [to Amity] and he always tells me how the teachers are really smart and how the school is super big and [clubs] is fun and there are plays and everything. I want to take [culinary] and maybe join the baseball team when I'm a high schooler.

But my babysitter has been kind of upset about school. He says something about the school using [AI,] and that it’s making people nervous. He says the students feel like [AI] is reading their work and not people. I don’t understand, but he used to like Amity and now he looks really mad when he talks about it.

I don’t know a lot about [AI,] but I know people are better at understanding feelings and trying to help each other. I think school should make people feel safe, not scared. I hope when I get to Amity, the teachers still read our work themselves and tell us what they think. I love my teacher and I am excited for my new teachers at the middle school.
Please make sure Amity stays a place where people help people. I really want to look forward to it again, like I used to when my babysitter told me how great it was.

Thank you for reading my letter.
Bye,
(redacted)
Age 11

An 11-year-old gets it.

"I know people are better at understanding feelings and trying to help each other."
"School should make people feel safe, not scared."
"I hope when I get to Amity, the teachers still read our work themselves."

This kid understands something the administration apparently doesn't: education is a human relationship. It's not a transaction between student and algorithm. It's not about efficiency or cost savings or processing assignments faster. It's about people helping people learn. He's 11 years old and he already knows that replacing human attention with algorithmic assessment breaks something fundamental about what school is supposed to be. I used to tell him Amity was great. I meant it. Now when he asks me about school, I get stressed trying to explain why the place I used to love is implementing policies I fundamentally disagree with. An 11-year-old can see that change in me. He can feel it. And his response wasn't to shrug it off. His response was to write a letter to the high school because he still believes that adults listen, that schools care, that speaking up matters.

I really hope he's right.

Because if he gets to Amity in a few years and AI has replaced even more of the human interaction that makes learning meaningful, I don't know what I'll tell him. I don't know how to explain that the adults who run the school chose convenience over connection, efficiency over ethics, algorithms over people. He's more excited about having good teachers than about the building being big or the clubs being cool. He understands, intuitively, what matters. And what he's asking for isn't complicated or expensive or unreasonable.

He just wants teachers to read his work. He wants people to help people. He wants to look forward to high school again. That shouldn't be too much to ask.

Thank you for taking the time to read his letter. Write your own and send it at keepamityhuman.org today! Share this petition with 4 people and help this 11-year-old’s dream come true.