Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
REARDAN — Should cell phone use be highly restricted, or even banned, in local schools? That’s a debate that some Lincoln County school districts are discussing or even acting on.
The Reardan-Edwall School District just finished its first school year with a rather restrictive cell-phone use policy for students, while the Davenport School District is closely monitoring whether it should enact a similar policy.
In Reardan, students are not allowed access to their cell phones during the school day. Cell phones must be kept in a locker or cubby.
The lone exception is for high school students, who are allowed to use their phones during morning break and lunch.
“It has gone way better than I thought it would,” superintendent Eric Sobotta said. “Perfect? No, but students and families seem to be mostly on board and understand why we are doing it.”
Language arts and English composition teacher Bob Swannack said student engagement in his classroom has increased “exponentially” this school year since the policy was enacted.
“When the policy was put into place, I made it very clear that we would follow policy and procedures accordingly,” Swannack said. “In my classroom, I rarely see cell phones; when I do, I ask nicely for the student to put it away, which hasn’t been an issue.”
Swannack said he did see more cell phone use in the hallways as the school year progressed, and students began to slip in attention span as the school day ended.
“Attempting to hold their attention after 3 p.m. is more difficult, but not overly challenging,” Swannack said. “When they are allowed to use their cell phones, most of the students take full advantage.”
High school principal JoLynn Ray said enforcement of the rule has proven easier than she foresaw.
“The students have been compliant as the consequences are not something they want to happen,” Ray said. “It has been nice for teachers not to battle phones in class.”
Reardan has a strike-based system for students who are caught on their phones. A first violation in a semester means the student loses their phone for the rest of the day, and the student isn’t allowed to attend practice or play in a game if they’re in athletics.
Parents are informed and a written warning is issued.
A second violation means a parent must pick up the cell phone, and a third violation results in a mandatory parent meeting and a loss of school activity privileges like dances and field trips.
Fourth violations result in suspension from school and a fifth violation leads to a decision about remote learning due to the “level of cell phone dependency,” per the District’s policy language.
“The conflicts that happen on social media and smartphones have basically gone down to zero during the school day,” Sobotta said.
Davenport’s policy this year was less restrictive: Students weren’t allowed to access their phones during class periods but weren’t required to store phones in lockers or cubbies and could surf between classrooms.
Superintendent Chad Prewitt and the School Board are strongly considering enhancing those restrictions, citing research that shows strong indication cell phone and social media use has a strongly negative effect on the mental health and attention span of children and adolescents.
“Even as an adult, when this thing goes off, I’m distracted by it and wondering who’s reaching out to me,” board chair Garrett Husky noted at a May School Board meeting.
No direct action has been taken by the District or Board yet, and Prewitt said that’s unlikely until at least July. That’s partially due to the District’s reshuffling of administration following Sarita Hopkins’s resignation as elementary principal.
Both Sobotta and Prewitt envision future legislative investigation and possible action surrounding cell phone use in schools.
This legislative cycle, Rep. Stephanie McClintock, R-Vancouver, proposed a bill that would ban phones during the school day.
That bill didn’t get to the governor’s desk.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
Reader Comments(0)