Tonight, the Amity Board of Education held its finance committee meeting.
We were there.
For fourteen days, thirty students have sent an email every single day. We have built a petition, an Instagram following, and a campaign that has reached every member of this Board. Tonight, they had to respond to us in public, on the record, in a meeting that was recorded and archived.
Here is what happened.
One Board member said that our environmental concerns are not for the Board to discuss. He said our political concerns are not for the Board to discuss. He said how the companies Amity pays use their money is not in the Board's purview to consider. And then he said he commends students for being activists.
Another said this is not the place or time. Every school board is doing this. It is difficult to appeal to everyone.
And then there was Jen Jacquet.
Jacquet said there should be a very clear policy for teachers and students related to AI. She said there should be an opt-out. She said she knows school-provided platforms claim to be safe, and so do regular AI platforms. She said school versions are not actually safe and that we need to look into this. She formally asked, on the record, for AI policy to be put on the next Board agenda, and called specifically for student input in that process.
A sitting Board member said that. Into a microphone. Last night.
The finance committee voted tonight to approve a budget ceiling that includes AI platform funding. That is not the final vote. The full Board of Education votes on March 9th. We have sixteen days.
We are at 140 signatures. We need 300 by the end of this week.
Three hundred signatures from students, parents, and community members in the district that this Board represents is impossible to ignore in a room on March 9th. It is proof that this campaign is not thirty students. It is proof that this community is paying attention.
If everyone who has already signed shares this petition with five people, we reach 750 signatures before the vote.
Five people. That is a text to a parent. A message to a friend. A post on your story tonight. Five people who care about who is grading Amity students' transcripts and whether anyone asked permission.
Amity needs you. Not eventually. This week.
Sign and share: change.org/KeepAmityHuman
March 9th. Be there.
#KeepAmityHuman