Germany: Saxony: Father Sues Against WiFi in the Classroom

Saxony: fear of radiation! Father sues against WiFi in the classroom
time.news, 23 June 2023

Dresden – Saxony has already invested 354 million euros in the “Digital Pact for Schools”, which is intended to provide WiFi and tablets at all schools in Saxony. But on Thursday, a father sued his child’s school for using wireless internet!

Eric Frank (57) demands from the city of Bad Gottleuba-Berggiesshübel (school authority) the “immediate shutdown of the WLAN at the primary school Berggiesshübel”!

He and other concerned parents think it is completely oversized that there is a WLAN access point hanging from the ceiling in each of the nine classrooms. Her concern: “We don’t want our children to be exposed to radiation! According to the technical description, up to 200 devices can be connected to each access point – but the school only has around 150 children.”

Eric Frank refers to several expert opinions, according to which damage to health from WLAN radiation cannot be ruled out.

Around 150 children study at the elementary school in Berggiesshübel

At the hearing at the Pirna district court, the plaintiff asked the mayor of Bad Gottleuba, Thomas Peters (42, CDU): “Switch off the devices immediately and only use them if the children also need them in class. Digital teaching in elementary school is only a fraction of the curriculum.”

Silvia Silbermann (40), also the mother of a child at the Berggiesshübler elementary school: “I work in an IT company, have a cell phone and am not an activist against digitization. But does this strong radiation have to be? I am therefore considering withdrawing my child from school.”

The process was about such outdoor Internet access points (higher performance).

Mayor Peters defended himself: “I have two children myself at this elementary school and I am opposed to putting the children’s health at risk.” After the first complaints, “we switched off the WLAN and checked our planning, which a specialist company had carried out.”

The school WiFi goes into sleep mode when inactive. “We can’t just pull the plug on individual devices – that generates an error message,” says Peters. But he promises: “We will now also have the actual radiation measured again.”

The judge said yesterday: “The topic is relevant, but the district court is the wrong framework.” Since it is a matter of public law on public school grounds, that’s for it administrative court responsible. Frank now wants to take this legal route with a dozen other primary school parents.

https://time.news/saxony-fear-of-radiation-father-sues-against-wifi-in-the-classroom-regional/