The Los Angeles Unified School District recently gave out iPads to every student within the school district. However, plenty of questions have already emerged about this new technology plan. One pressing concern centers around who foots the bill for iPad screen repair if devices get dropped or cracked, reported the Los Angeles Times.
District officials have yet to determine if the school district or if the parents and students would be responsible if iPads are lost or damaged.
“It's extremely disconcerting that the parent and student responsibility issue has not been hammered out, and that different parents and students received different information during the rollout,” said Board of Education member Monica Ratliff, at a recent district meeting.
There were three different forms sent out by the district to parents regarding the iPad plan. One form required a signature stating that the family is responsible for the iPad if it is lost or broken. However, at a $700 price tag and many of the affected families being of low income, repair or replacement costs may be too much to bear.
“I don't want my child responsible for a $600 device,” said Sara Roos, a mother in the school district.
District students are still required to have the devices, and the board is working on ways to improve both the policies and security surrounding the iPads. iResQ offers a 1:1 repair program for schools in similar situations.
Stewart incident shows fundamental flaw with new Apple
Many iPads are broken on a daily basis, leading many to take devices in to shops for repair services. In fact, even high-profile celebrities have the need for repair services every now and then. NewsFactor recently reported that Martha Stewart took to Twitter to ask Apple for a new iPad after she broke hers, causing a ripple affect that could hurt the company's marketing campaigns.
Stewart tweeted about how she was waiting for Apple to come and pick up her broken iPad and replace it pronto. The Apple PR team took exception at these tweets, which caused her to become more upset.
“I cannot believe that Apple Public Relations is mad at me for tweeting about my Ipad and how to get it fixed! steve jobs gave it to me!” she tweeted.
Industry analysts believe this was a bad PR move for the company, which should have handled it better by simply giving her what she wanted. Instead, Apple has to deal with the ramifications.
What Martha Stewart should have done was send her device into iResQ for its iPad replacement glass and iPad repair services.