Alleged human-rights abuses in China delay laptop shipments to NC students
Update: The story was updated at 12:03 p.m. Aug. 11, 2020, to reflect the number of delayed, new laptops in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Update: Scott Gill, CEO of Trinity3 Technology, responded at 4 p.m. Aug. 11, 2020, to questions about the delayed laptops.
Local school districts are pulling extra laptops out of the closet after learning new devices ordered this summer have been delayed by allegations of forced labor in China.
The allegations and subsequent U.S. sanctions left many school districts, including in Orange and Durham counties, scrambling for options ahead of the virtual school year. School starts online Aug. 17 in most North Carolina districts, and in Durham, Wake and Orange County, students will remain online until at least September or October.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools decided earlier this month to keep students in online classes until Jan. 15.
The Orange County Schools district is waiting for 8,000 laptops for students and another 1,000 laptops for teachers and staff, chief financial officer Rhonda Rath said in an email Monday.
That roughly $4.5 million delivery from technology vendor CDWG has been delayed by six weeks, Superintendent Monique Felder told The News & Observer Monday.
The delay affects students in grades 1-3, she said, noting that kindergartners have received iPads, and students in grades 4-12 kept their laptops over the summer.
The district has roughly 1,000 existing laptops to serve the remaining students, Deputy Superintendent Kathleen Dawson said. Another 700 older-model laptops being rented will arrive Wednesday, she said.
Each school is scheduling a drive-through pickup to get those laptops to students by Friday, and parents should call their school with any questions, she said.
“Between what we have in reserve and what we are renting, we should be able to meet the needs of the students who do not have a device,” Felder said. “We’re not talking about a phone. We’re looking at anything from a laptop to a tablet.”
Chapel Hill, Durham laptop delays
In the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the district is still waiting for Lenovo computers from Trinity3 Techology. The company already delivered 7,650 Chromebooks for students in grades 6-12, which will be distributed starting Aug. 14, spokesman Jeff Nash said. Students in grades K-1 have received iPads, while students in grades 3-5 are using existing Chromebooks, he said.
That leaves fewer than 1,000 second-grade students waiting for a new laptop, Nash said. The district has surplus devices available for those students until the order is filled, likely sometime in October, he said.
“It’s not going to stop us from doing what we need to do,” Nash said. “I think the bigger headache is we’re going to have to do another distribution for these kids when the new ones come in.”
The Durham Public Schools also turned to existing laptops to fill the need when its order was delayed, spokesman Chip Sudderth said. He could not immediately provide the vendor’s name or how many students would be affected, but said every student will have a device when school starts.
Wake County Public School System officials reported buying 40,000 laptops earlier this year and are looking for volunteers to help distribute them to students. Wake schools spokesman Matt Dees said the district was not affected by any delays.
Felder said many other school districts are impacted. An N.C. Department of Public Instruction spokesman could not say Monday whether the agency tracks that information.
Each school district in North Carolina approves its own contracts, often working with vendors acting as middlemen for Lenovo, Dell and other top technology brands. The U.S. Department of Commerce cracked down July 20 on Chinese factories that supply those manufacturers for suspected forced labor and human-rights violations.
Chinese oppression, labor violations
The U.S. trade sanctions delaying the computers target 11 Chinese companies accused of engaging in or enabling China’s campaign to oppress its Muslim minority population, or Uighurs, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The companies are among a few dozen on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which restricts the export and in-country transfer of items by sanctioned companies. Two companies, Hefei Bitland Information Technology Co. and Nanchang OFilm Tech, supply parts to Lenovo, Apple, HP and other electronics manufacturers.
Trinity3 Technology was a reseller for Lenovo Chromebook products manufactured by Hefei Bitland until the crackdown. The devices were sold to school districts across the United States, Trinity3 chief executive officer Scott Gill said in an email Tuesday afternoon to The N&O.
He declined to talk about individual school districts or how many may have been affected.
Lenovo alerted Trinity3 to the possible delays July 27, Gill said. Lenovo officials said they were cutting ties with Bitland and would not be importing devices produced by that company, he said.
“Lenovo remains committed to socially responsible sourcing and ongoing auditing processes for all production facilities to safeguard against the use of forced labor,” Gill said. “Lenovo has also committed to add alternative production locations for Chromebooks as soon as possible, to replace production volume lost from Bitland. This replacement supply will allow Trinity3 to provide school district customers with much-needed products later this fall.”
At least one affected school district in Alabama has canceled its contract over the delays, The Washington Post reported Aug. 4. Etowah County Schools officials told The Post that company officials told them federal officials were holding the Lenovo computers in customs. A spokesman for the Commerce Department said Monday no laptops have been seized.
“The Entity List establishes a license requirement for the export of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations and does not apply to the importation of Chromebooks from China,” the spokesman said in an email. “While there are nuances in the policy that this issue actually falls under (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) jurisdiction, we should all agree that American children should not be using computers from China that were produced from forced labor.”
Felder said she’s “glad (the abuses were) noted and caught.”
“Hopefully, that sends a message, and I’m glad that we have laws in place that prohibit any abuse and we’re not going to use any products that are developed through those means,” Felder said.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
