No to Big Tech Bullies in Our Schools

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No to Big Tech Bullies in Our Schools

Start: Wednesday, November 11, 2026•04:00 PM

Location: Out front of Google's West Loop Office• 309 N Morgan, Chicago, IL 60603 US

Host contact info info@ilfps.org

We're saying NO to Big Tech bullies in our schools! Wed. Nov 11th: Rally at 4pm, 309 N Morgan Gather at 3pm, Mary Bartelme Park [Image: young child's drawing of person shouting]

Parents, students and educators have had enough of tech companies making harmful and dangerous decisions about what and how kids learn in public schools.

Come rally with us in front of Google's Chicago office on Wednesday afternoon. We'll gather at Mary Bartelme Park (115 S Sangamon) starting at 3pm and hold a press conference at 4pm at 309 N Morgan.

Sponsored by Illinois Families for Public Schools and Schools Beyond Screens - Chicago CPS

Why should Google and other Big Tech and ed tech companies have more say over what is happening in our public schools than educators, families and school boards? They shouldn't!

This week alone: Google demanded that schools either use their AI product or lose access to Google's search function.

Schools should use this opportunity not only to turn off AI, but to teach students that ‘Google’ isn’t a verb, but the name of a surveillance and advertising company whose presence in schools has nothing to do with learning and everything to do with developing lifetime brand loyalty

-- Josh Golin, executive director, Fairplay

And on Thursday, a lawsuit was filed against Google for the harm done via its "AI Mode" embedded in search products on every students' Google account and Chromebook.

Emma v. Google: “New Product Defect Suit Alleges Google Snuck Its Dangerous Gemini AI into K-12 Schools, Causing Teen Girl to Suffer Acute Psychological Crisis and Suicidality”

The lawsuit was filed by the family of a 7th grader who for months had been goaded on by AI Mode in suicidal ideation on her school Chromebook.

In August, Chicago Public Schools hastily reversed a planned rollout of the Gemini chat bot for high schoolers’ Google accounts after uproar from families.

The truth is, Gemini functionality via “AI Mode” and AI-overviews in Search are part of every CPS kid’s Google account.

“When Common Sense Media tested how Google Search’s AI features react to homework questions, the tool completed kids’ homework every time, researchers found, and missed suicidal ideation and produced inaccuracies, among other problems, leading to an ‘unacceptable risk” rating.’” —"Google Pushed AI Into Schools—and Even Students Say It’s Gone Too Far" (Gift link from Schools Beyond Screens)

And inside dozens of applications approved for use in CPS, student data is being shared with frontier AI-models—not just Google’s Gemini, but OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s.

Parents and caregivers have been given no knowledge or say in this happening.

The price of a public education shouldn’t be kids' personal data, or worse yet their mental health or even their life.

There is no evidence that the ubiquity of Chromebooks, Google Classroom and Google’s genAI monster has improved academic outcomes, and we see the harm building by day.

Providing kids with instantaneous access to answers short-circuits the valuable, strenuous tasks of thinking, discovering and creating—the core experiences of the learning process.

And substituting bots and apps for trained, licensed teachers and counselors hurts our children’s future and their present day lives.

Establishing trusted relationships with adults in their school makes students more likely to attend school, to learn what we as a society hope they learn, to alert adults when they have fears, worries and safety concerns about themselves or their peers.

And, ultimately, the devastating environmental impact of hyperscale data centers polluting our air and water and escalating the warming of our planet is hurting our both our kids’ future and their present existence!

We are rallying to say NO to the tech industry dictating the terms of our kids’ educational experiences in public schools.

More background:

Hooked on YouTube: How video slop is infiltrating classrooms NBC News. October 20, 2026

Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable in a landmark social media addiction trial. AP News. March 25, 2026

Meet Amira, an AI reading tutor alarming some parents and school leaders in New Mexico. NBC News. August 7, 2026.

Coalition of Organizations and Experts Calls for Pause on Generative AI in PreK-12 schools. Fairplay. April 16, 2026

California parents sue i-Ready maker over student data collection. The Guardian. June 11, 2026

PowerSchool, Chicago Schools Agree to Pay $17.25M Settlement. Government Technology. February 26, 2026

Google's work in schools aims to create a 'pipeline of future users,' internal documents say NBC News, Jan 23, 2026