NC Operations Director Lori Fowler delivered the following remarks to the Catawba County this week:
Good evening, members of the Board. Thank you for your service to our students and families.
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a future concept; it is here in our classrooms. It has extraordinary potential to enhance learning, improve efficiency, and expand access to information in ways we could not have imagined even a few years ago. Used wisely, AI can be a powerful educational tool. But with that opportunity comes serious responsibility. We have already seen what happens when technology outpaces guardrails. Smartphones and social media were introduced without fully understanding their long-term impact on children. Today, we see rising anxiety, depression, and addiction. With AI, the stakes are even higher. That is why I am asking you to adopt our AI Proclamation.
This proclamation does not reject innovation. It embraces it with boundaries. It affirms that parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. It ensures transparency about what data is collected and how algorithms are used. It protects student data from commercial exploitation and profiling. It requires meaningful parental consent and oversight. Most importantly, it makes clear that AI must remain a tool to support learning and that the keys to the AI toolbox belong to parents. No algorithm should replace a teacher’s judgment. No platform should shape a child’s worldview. No AI system should conduct or monitor social-emotional learning or provide mental health services to students. And no AI tool should operate without clear safeguards and accountability. This is about the balance of innovation with responsibility. Progress with protection. By adopting this proclamation, you are sending a clear message: technology will serve families in this district, not the other way around. You are affirming that transparency, student safety, and parental rights are non-negotiable.
A sample AI Board Policy was also sent to the Chairperson of the Board for review. We encourage the board to produce an AI policy if not already in place.
Our children deserve opportunity. They also deserve protection. AI can help strengthen education, but only if we put the proper guardrails in place now. I respectfully urge you to adopt this proclamation and develop a strong policy to lead with clarity, courage, and commitment to the families you serve. Thank you.
“Saving America starts in the schools” said Jared Craig esq, VFAF National Vice President.
Lori Fowler
Operations Director
North Carolina State Chapter
Veterans for America First
The Original 2015 Veterans for Trump Grassroots
@lorimarie73
