A 10-year-old California girl was left terrified after watching a classmate play a disturbing horror game on a school-issued iPad during class at an elementary school.
The game, titled Granny, shows a decaying, corpse-like grandmother stalking players through dark hallways and attacking them with a bloody baseball bat.
Screenshots included in a parent report show the game running on a school iPad, alongside another image of a personal Apple account logged into a district-issued device.
For the student at the Santa Barbara Unified School District elementary school, the experience quickly spiraled into sleepless nights.
Her parents told the Santa Barbara Independent their daughter was left sobbing and unable to sleep after seeing the game “at school, during school hours, on a school iPad.”
They stressed they do not blame teachers, instead pointing to a larger system failure.
In a letter to the superintendent of the district, the girl’s father warned that no one truly knows what students are doing on school devices.
“Neither you nor anyone else knows what our children are doing with district property in our schools during school hours,” he wrote.
“Are they playing horror games? Gambling? Communicating with anonymous adults? Watching porn? We don’t know, and neither do you.”
The incident highlights what some parents are calling “tablet trauma,” a growing concern as school-issued devices become nearly universal in classrooms.
Nationwide, about 90% of students now receive a Chromebook or iPad, with screen use surging after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even with filters and firewalls in place, parents and experts say students are finding ways around restrictions.
IT consultant and parent Simon Bentley conducted his own review of district devices and found multiple vulnerabilities, according to the Santa Barbara Independent.
Students were able to bypass safeguards, download unauthorized apps, shop online and access AI tools.
In one case, Bentley was able to log out of a school account and sign into his own Apple account on a district iPad.
“This stuff is easy to work around and kids are smart,” Bentley said. For some families, the impact goes beyond a single incident.
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Parent Autumn McFarland told the Santa Barbara Independent she noticed changes in her teenage daughter after receiving a school-issued iPad, including fatigue, anxiety and irritability.
A review of the device showed the girl had been staying up late watching short-form videos for hours.
Once her parents intervened, her condition improved, but the experience left them uneasy about how easily the device could be misused.
“Technology is both a tool and a weapon,” McFarland told school officials, according to the Santa Barbara Independent.
Other parents echoed similar concerns, saying devices meant for learning are often used for entertainment and can be especially distracting for students with ADHD.
Parent Kathryn Birch summed up the frustration, telling the Santa Barbara Independent: “You don’t want our cell phones at school, and we don’t want your devices at home.”
District officials say they are working to address the issue.
A newly formed technology task force is planning stronger safeguards, including blocking games and entertainment sites, removing web browsers and tightening controls on how devices are used in classrooms.
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