'I Waited Almost 3.5 Hours': Philadelphia Parents, Students Brave Long Lines To Get Chromebooks For Virtual Learning
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Parents and students braved longs lines Tuesday while trying to get Chromebooks before Philadelphia School District students start school virtually Wednesday.
According to the School District of Philadelphia, there is no shortage of laptops. We're told the district has provided almost 9,000 laptops since Aug. 17.
But parents are saying the problem is just how long it's taking for those Chromebooks to be distributed.
"The first time I went, I'm thinking it was easy-peasy, which it wasn't," said Northeast Philadelphia parent Nicole Figueroa.
Easy-peasy isn't exactly how parents would describe picking up their children's Chromebooks for the upcoming school year.
Now that students will learn remotely for the first marking period, Chromebooks are a necessity that parents say doesn't come easy.
"I went back and I tried again and went on Friday. I waited almost three-and-a-half hours to get a Chromebook, and waited in the hot heat," Figueroa said.
There are only three locations where parents are allowed to pick up Chromebooks for students.
At the School District of Philadelphia's headquarters on North Broad Street, at Fitzpatrick Elementary School in the Upper Northeast, and Martin Luther King, Jr. High School in North Philadelphia.
"Why don't you try doing a beeper method? A beeper method where just like they have for the restaurants where these people don't have to wait in line," Figueroa said.
Parents are hoping the school year goes more smoothly than picking up their children's Chromebooks.
"Not even water was even offered to us, nothing. That's not fair for children to have to wait or pregnant women, period," Figueroa said.
A spokesperson with the School District Of Philadelphia sent us a statement, reading in part:
"The lines we are seeing are a combination of pickups from families who did not get laptops last year, new students to the district, and also staff/administrators who are also directed to pick up their work-related Chromebooks from this location."
The district went on to say that it has expanded the number of locations for technology support and pickup from one to three locations.