Classrooms are unlikely to have good enough light for mirrors to work, and replacing batteries would be a bit of a chore, and a bit wasteful and expensive, assuming the microscopes were bought before rechargeable batteries and good white LEDs were cheap.
I did the same, and my PC immediately crashed as the year rolled over. It was fine after a reboot, and it was eventually fine on the actual day. I don’t remember what updates I may have done, if any; it was long before automatic updates.
They’ve got a legitimate concern; they share a last name with a former President of Mexico.