We were able to speak on CBC News BC's Early Edition this morning, in a segment that also featured Vancouver School Board Associate Superintendent Pedro da Silva and Surrey Superintendent Mark Pearmain.

We were so happy that CBC gave time to air the other side of this story. Most of the coverage of AI in schools in Vancouver has only had the voices of people trying to push the technology:

• CBC interviewed VSB Digital Literacy Mentor Christina Walker in February 2026
• This is Vancouver interviewed Mark Pearmain and Pedro da Silva in January 2026

We were able to speak after the two superintendents. This post will cover what they spoke about.

The plan is… no plan

Parents have repeatedly asked Vancouver School Board how Copilot will be used in classrooms, and Mr da Silva’s comments in the CBC segment made it clear that VSB's plan is that there is no plan. They plan to to let students and teachers figure it out.

This thinking is mirrored by comments from a VSB Trustee. We had an opportunity to speak with them and voiced our concerns about the effect of AI on students, the trustee said that they hoped for legislation on a provincial or federal level. We understood that to mean they did not see VSB as responsible.

This same mindset was shown by Mark Pearmain's comment later in the segment. He is excited to see how AI can enhance a student's experience, but does not explain how that might occur.

They are adamant that Microsoft Copilot must must be deployed in schools, but they cannot explain why or how it will be used.

How will students use Copilot?

How students would use Copilot was a key question that host Michelle Eliot asked three times in three different ways before she got an answer. First asking what students would use Copilot for, then what would happen in practical terms, and finally asking for prompts or examples of classes.

For an example of how students could use Microsoft Copilot 13+, this is a screenshot from a VSB student account, asking it to write an essay. The Copilot 13+ guardrails that are often talked about do not include stopping the tool from doing the student's thinking for them.

Concerns heard, ignored

Later in the segment, the host Michelle Eliot mentioned the calls from the Manitoba premier to ban AI for children 16 and under, and asked Mark Pearmain what he thought about this and other concerns around AI.

Mark Pearmain avoids the question and responds by talking about valuing transparency and encouraging parents to ask questions. To support that conversation in a clearly unbiased way, Surrey is hosting evening on "healthy AI" with Dr Shimi Kang, an AI advocate.

If you have time, it may be worth registering to attend and seeing if there is any opportunity for questions from attendees.

This tactic of talking about listening to parents concerns, but continuing with AI deployment is the same used by Vancouver School Board in their VSB Voices meeting where parents and guardians were encouraged to air their concerns, and then ignored.

Inevitability framing

Not mentioned in any of the discussions is the idea of not using AI. “AI is here, the genie is not going to be put back into the bottle.”

This inevitability is a key tactic and framing used by AI advocates. They shift the conversation to “how best to use AI” by cutting off any option of saying “No”.

We are not powerless

Despite this framing, AI is not inevitable.

We have the power to protect students’ learning environment.

One key way we can enact change is through the upcoming elections in October. There are elections for school board trustees in October for both Vancouver and Surrey.

What you can do:

• Ask candidates what their position is on AI in schools.
• Ask if they would support a two-year pause on AI.
• Ask if they have seen the research on how AI makes students learn less.
• Sign our petition.

Vancouver School Board hit the big red "On" switch for Microsoft's chatbot Copilot this week.

What we know

There is still a lot that is left unexplained but here's what we know so far.

The main sources for information are VSB's Copilot website, the FAQ sub-section and the most recent episode of the VSB podcast After the Bell.

The website confirms that students 13 years and older will be able to use Copilot through their school account.

Although it seems that 13 is not a hard age-limit, because in subsequent years students Grade 8 students will get access "in second semester, after most Grade 8 students will have turned 13."

The FAQ states:

This is unsurprising. Similar to how Google gave free Chromebooks to schools to get students into the Google ecosystem, Microsoft hopes to get students used to Copilot so they will become paying customers in the future.

Opting Out

According to Christina Walker in Episode 47 of After the Bell, guardians are able to opt-out of their child using Copilot.

We have contacted VSB for confirmation of this.

If you would like to opt-out, feel free to copy-paste the following or use it as inspiration for writing your own email.

What are you seeing in your school?

We are expecting that the way that each school and each teacher uses Copilot will vary. To know what students are experiencing, we would love to hear from you!

As parents, guardians, educators and students, what are you seeing in your school? We would love to hear from you!

• How have you seen Copilot being used in classrooms?
• Has using Copilot been part of any homework assignments?
• Did your school ask for guardian permission before the student started using Copilot?
• Did the school make it clear to you that you are able to opt-out? If you chose to opt-out, how was it received, what did the school do?

Contact us at contact@aicaution.ca, via Bluesky @aicaution.ca or via Signal @aicaution.42.

"AI Chatbots are Coming to BC Classrooms" was published in The Tyee, covering Vancouver School Board's plan to put Copilot into classrooms.

We are excited to see more people looking at the VSB plans, however there are some things to add that the article misses.

Not just "a few youths" pushing back

The subhead of the article is "Students need to learn to use it responsibly, the school board says. But a few youths are pushing back."

From this subhead and the general tone of the article, one might think that the plans are generally unopposed. This is inaccurate. AI is incredibly unpopular with students, parents and teachers.

At our recent pop-up event at Riley Park Farmers’ Market, we spoke with many students and teachers who were frustrated with AI. The article only interviews a single teacher, and they speak positively about AI. In our experience the majority of teachers do not want AI in classrooms.

This unpopularity is not just limited to local schools. In the US, AI is less popular than ICE. Students have been booing mentions of AI in graduation speeches.

Also unmentioned in the article is the hundreds-strong protest on May 23 against proposed AI data centres. Most of the participants were young adults. The associated petition has over 8500 signatures so far. (Update: As of June 2026, it has reached 10,000 signatures)

Our own petition for a two-year pause on AI in schools has 650 signatures at the time of writing this. (Update: As of June 2026, it has reached 750 signatures) No mention of how Copilot will be used

The article does not cover that Vancouver School Board have not made it clear how Copilot would be used in classrooms. In a recent consultation meeting, parents raised many questions and concerns:

• Will students be able to use Copilot to write for them?
• Will it give feedback on their writing?
• How will students who use Copilot be evaluated against those who choose not to use it?
• Will its use be required?
• Will it solve problems for them?
• What happens when it gives incorrect information?

None of these questions have been answered by Vancouver School Board.

Cognitive offloading still unaddressed

Cognitive offloading is the effect of becoming less skilled, less knowledgeable, more "stupid", the more someone uses AI.

The school board's approach to generative AI is exemplified by da Silva's response to concerns about cognitive offloading. From the Tyee article:

The strategies mentioned do not address cognitive offloading at all. They are things that are done after the a student is found to "cheat" (something that lacks definition when using AI). Cognitive offloading happens simply by using AI.

The only strategy to avoid cognitive offloading is to not use AI.

Privacy

When dealing with data and students, Canadian law requires that all information be stored on servers within Canada. Microsoft are quick to point out that they comply with this law.

When asked about this, da Silva's replies:

Mr da Silva's assumption is incorrect. Microsoft does let the US government access it.

Microsoft is required by the US CLOUD act to provide the United States government access to data stored on any Microsoft-owned server, regardless of what country the server is located.

We are hoping that this is the first article of many from media outlets, and that they will cover the broader antipathy towards AI in future articles.

Movement on AI issue

In the last week, there have been a flurry of announcements about banning under-16s from accessing AI chatbots and social media. The premier and education minister of Manitoba announced plans to ban AI chatbots and social media, starting in classrooms. BC's attorney general Niki Sharma followed this by asking the Federal government for stronger legislation on AI companies.

After two years of educators, researchers and parents sounding the alarm on the harmful effects of AI chatbots, it is encouraging to see governments finally talking about taking action. If put into place, age verification for chatbots may help to reduce the harm done to students.

However it is not without its drawbacks.

Solution with a fallout

Any age restriction laws would require that all users prove their age. All users have to upload their ID to the companies that are contracted to provide verification. From a privacy perspective, this is concerning. When a similar age-verification system was implemented for the popular chat application Discord, a cyber attack led to 70,000 users' photo IDs being leaked.

A simpler solution

When students were distracted by cell phones in classrooms, and their learning suffered, the Ministry of Education and Child Care enacted a policy to restrict cell phones in classrooms. They can and should do the same with AI chatbots.

If you feel the same, please take a minute to sign the petition to the Ministry of Education and Child Care.

After engaging with parents, guardians and caregivers, Vancouver School Board have published their Engagement Summary Report on Digital Devices, Digital Tools and AI.

Participants very clearly voiced a number of well-founded concerns, which are documented in the report.

The report ends with VSB confirming they will rollout Copilot anyway.

Concerns voiced

Comments from parents show that they are extremely well-informed and understand the risks associated with AI.

Participants complain at multiple points about a lack of transparency about how AI would be used in classrooms. There is still no clear communication from VSB on how Copilot would be used in classrooms.

Questions still unanswered:

• Will students be able to use Copilot to write for them?
• Will it give feedback on their writing?
• How will students who use Copilot be evaluated against those who choose not to use it?
• Will its use be required?
• Will it solve problems for them?
• What happens when it gives incorrect information?

Many participants were concerned that students using AI would not learn and would instead become reliant on the AI. These concerns are borne out by current research (Anthropic 2025)

The report states that “many underscored that overreliance on AI can change students’ ability to think, write and problem solve.” Research shows that students who use AI perform worse than those who use paper-based notes (Kosmyna 2025, Lehmann 2025, Kreijkes 2025).

Parents raised concerns that students using AI would result in them offloading critical thinking. This is is shown to happen by current research (Lee 2025).

Concerns ignored

Despite all of these concerns, the report concludes with:

We hope that Vancouver School Board will listen to both research and parents’ concerns and cancel their plans to roll out Copilot into classrooms.

New stories come out each week of the negative impacts of AI on society. From driving people to psychosis, to students becoming reliant on tools like ChatGPT to write essays for them.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are being put in classrooms across BC.

We demand that the Ministry of Education and Child Care enact a two-year pause (moratorium) on AI usage in classrooms in British Columbia.

This means that for two years, in schools in BC:

1. Students will not use generative AI in classrooms.
2. Students will not use generative AI for homework.

If this is something that you agree with, please take the time to sign the petition on Action Network.

CBC released an interview with Christina Walker, the Vancouver School Board's Digital Literacy Mentor.

The interview is relatively short but has many key omissions and mis-truths that are important to correct and clarify.

Avoids mentioning harms of AI

At the end of the piece the interviewer asks: "Have you noticed a decline in students when they're using AI, whether it's those critical thinking skills, whether their grades are going down? Is there any metric for that?"