Following concerns expressed by some parents about a student cellphone ban at Wilton High School, some Board of Education members at Thursday night’s meeting (Sept. 5) appeared to be losing their previous enthusiasm for the initiative.
In particular, questions raised about Superintendent of Schools Kevin Smith‘s deciding on his own to spend $80,000 of apparently ‘found’ money on the cellphone pouches that would be used to store the devices while students were in class, has given the impression that the matter was moving forward too quickly and that the community had not been adequately included in the discussion.
Moving Too Fast?
Parent Gyna Soucy identified herself as “one of the parents who does feel like this was sprung on us,” and said that the administration would be changing the life of her son, a senior at Wilton High School, for a whole year.
“The perception that I got,” she said, “it felt like it was just kind of getting swept under, hoping that not everyone would notice, hoping it wouldn’t come up so much. I understand that that’s not how you meant it, but that’s how it looked, I think, for several families.”
Broaching the idea with the BOE at the end of the last school year, based on concerns for student mental health and academic improvement, Smith received a positive response. He formed a committee to construct a plan over the summer — the idea being that students would be provided magnetic pouches made by the company Yondr, which would be sealed but still allow students to hold their devices on their person.
Smith said that, after the last budget was closing out at the end of June, “We had some unexpended funds (and) I authorized the purchase of these,” which he said cost “about $80,000,” at $25 to $30 per student.
He said that, while they were ordered, the district can still return them, but that he felt it was better to get the order in before the possibility of delay due to demand for the pouches at districts around the country making a similar move to ban cell phones..
BOE member Heather Priest, who previously spoke in favor of the ban, pressed Smith to explain his decision to spend the money before the matter had been voted on, especially given the budget cuts that had to be made going into the 2024-25 fiscal year.
“I understand your thought process, but I also understand the community’s feelings around kind of them feeling like it just kind of caught it all off guard … before anyone from the Board voted on it, before anyone from the Board had a chance to talk about it,” she said, asking him if he felt he left the community behind in the process.
Smith conceded, “I appreciate it … That’s not a typical way of operating, not for me.”
“I felt pretty confident that this was going to be the direction we were going to move in,” he added.
“I think around this table I haven’t heard any strident opposition,” he said. “I’ve heard questions, so I felt … this is not an up-for-grabs decision. I felt there’s enough support for it.”
“I fully recognize that there are other places we could direct those funds … I also didn’t want to be held up by an order delay,” he said.
BOE member Nicola Davies also expressed some trepidation, asking whether it wouldn’t be more prudent to pilot the program solely at Middlebrook School, like neighboring districts in Darien and New Canaan intend to do with their respective middle schools.
“I’m just worried about the implementation at the high school,” she said.
“What do we do when people forget a bag? … Are we going to put resources toward policing this policy?” she asked.
Smith conceded that they would have to, but emphasized that some details still needed to be sorted out.
Smith Presents Argument in Favor of Ban
He gave a lengthy presentation supporting his argument for why he believes that banning the cellphones for the 6.5-hour school day for students provided more positives than negatives.
In the wake of the mass shooting at Apalachee High School on Wednesday, Sept. 4, in Winder, GA, Smith acknowledged that parent concerns around communication and allowing the cellphones to be in hand to assuage anxieties for their children amounted to valid reasons.
Simultaneously, he argued that the four main reasons for implementing the ban, including enhancing academic focus, promoting face-to-face interaction, improving mental health, and support positive behavior separate of online issues, made it worthwhile.
“I believe — and i’m not alone — many believe that there is a problem today with cellphones, with social media, and the two combined are negatively impacting our young people’s well being and getting in the way of their academic … success,” he said.
“The conversation is global … It’s a broad concern. It’s not something that fell out of the sky,” Smith said.
He cited the results of recent surveys among staff, students and parents, respectively, with more than half of the teachers at the high school indicating that cellphones in the classroom had decreased their joy in teaching, with 73% noting a decrease in academic performance as a result of the devices, and 80% stating that cellphones have impacted student attention, curiosity and interest in the materials being taught.
“A fair number of our staff do not consider the current cellphone policy effective,” Smith said.
While he said responses from parents were more evenly split on those questions, most of the students indicated the opposite.
“Students say, ‘There is no problem here,'” he said. “We don’t know what you’re talking about.'”
Smith said he found the reasons to implement a full ban “very compelling. The research is very compelling. It makes a lot of sense.”
Public Comment Stands Against a Cell Phone Ban
Several parents express their objections to the ban at the high school, including Kim Purcell.
“I obviously do not think that the students should be using phone during class,” she said, but stated her child made appropriate use of her phone for other things, including texting a classmate who had not received an email about a meeting, to enable the other student to attend. They also downloaded music to prepare for an in-school A capella audition.
“I’m sad and concerned by this course of action,” parent Kimberly Pagan said. “Essentially for me this is about trust … To me, you’re telling a child in high school that they can’t use a phone (and) you’re telling them you can’t trust them, and for me that’s damaging to a child,” she said.
Parent Melissa-Jean Rotini grew emotional when she invoked some text messages between a parent and student at Apalachee High School during the shooting to make her point that cellphones can’t be taken away from students.
“A lot of these kids have cellphones for safety, they don’t have them for social media,” she said. “They’re for emergencies only,” later adding, “it’s for their mental health, it’s for their security.”
Despite BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca‘s announcement that BOE policy allow for only two minutes by each person during public comment, Rotini spoke for more than 11 minutes, vehemently castigating the plan.
At the 10-minute mark, BOE member Patrick Pearson broke in to ask DeLuca to provide clarity on exactly how much time was allowed a public speaker. Rotini — who happens to be vice chair of the Planning and Zoning Commission, a commission that has ironically been criticized by some residents for its failure to offer adequate opportunities for public comment at its meetings — pressed on.
“I think with the children, you can give me two seconds to wrap up. This is a child issue, this isn’t like a regular kind of any issue, this is kind of important. And considering there’s been very little meetings or discussions on it, I don’t think letting me finish my last point is really unreasonable,” she said.
The official new draft policy itself regarding “Use of Private Technology Devices by Students” was only briefed discussed, but is planned to be looked at in more detail at the BOE’s next scheduled meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19.
CORRECTION: The story has been updated to correct details in a parent comment about positive uses of a cellphone made by her child.
Just reading about a cell phone ban in another district (I think in the NY Times newsletter this morning, come to think of it) and the benefits are substantial. You see increased levels of talking and play and engagement in schools where the ban is enacted. Kids, when they have these devices in school (including computers) they will inevitably be on Tik Tok or checking sports scores and highlights, etc. It’s just so much healthier to put their damn phones down for a minute and engage like human beings.
If parents need to reach their kid, then the school provides that service! When you call Middlebrook, it’s something like “Press 1 to speak to the nurse, press 2 to leave your child a message…” So what’s the issue? I went through my entire education and I can’t think of a single thing my parents needed to tell me that couldn’t wait until after school.
I’m not a fan of bans – books and words and ideas are constantly in the crosshairs by the extremes of both political extremes – but cell phones? I think the benefits far outweigh the supposed negatives.
Yes, the benefits of the ban far outweigh any negative! We see cell phones literally crippling our children. We must do better!
Cell phones and instant access to loved ones is a good thing on many levels and even as adults when we are away from our phones many feel vulnerable. I went to WHS in the 70’s when we said goodbye to parents at the bus stop and said hi again at dinner. If we missed the bus, forgot lunch, forgot a homework assignment.. too bad.. and we learned from those mistakes. Today there is the added stress for parents that schools are no longer safe havens and bad things can happen. Thus, both parents and students feel safer with a phone attached at all times. But it also affects learning.. Perhaps a compromise is for cell phones to be placed in “time out” during class time in a bin where all are silenced. If God forbid there is an emergency then students and teachers still have access. There can be a solution to the current situation that meets the needs of education and also safety. And with the above students can text to their hearts content between classes or at luch.
My kids got smart phones about 8th and 9th grade…flip phones before that. I think if you surveyed teachers, and students that graduated HS before the advent of smart phones, you would have your answer. Put phones on silent, emergency/parent contacts only, and put them in an over-the-door shoe holder when you enter class. If it otherwise buzzes, or I see you looking at yours in your lap, it’s mine until the end of the school day. The kids will be very busy walking between classes catching up on the drama, test answers, plans for after school, and ignoring the texts from their parents :). Not perfect, but free and helpful. I wish we had known to do this when my kids were in HS. I’m very glad they didn’t get phones any younger.