The Haines Borough School District’s school board is considering a policy that would require students to stow their cellphones and other devices in designated areas in each classroom.
The school district doesn’t currently have a formal board policy on cell-phone use. The district’s student handbook says high schoolers can use their phones “at the teacher’s discretion” while elementary and middle school students “should not” use devices during school hours — including at lunch and at recess.
The board on Tuesday held a first reading for a new policy that would tighten restrictions on the use of phones and other devices in schools. Board vice-president Michael Wald said it was a direct response to a bill passed by the Alaska Legislature in April that requires school districts in the state to adopt new policies for regulation of cellphones in the classroom. The board voted unanimously to advance the policy for a second reading.
“It’s high time we have a policy that works and has some community support,” Wald said. “I think that there’s some consensus among educators in the building that things need to change.”
The bulk of the language included in the new policy proposal, superintendent Lilly Boron said, came suggested from the Alaska Association of School Boards. According to the policy, teachers could allow situational use of electronic devices in the classroom with approval from their school’s administration, but that generally all students would be barred from the use of any cell phones “and other personal portable electronic devices” in the classroom.
High school students, if the policy were enacted, would be allowed to use their phones during passing periods and at lunch, while younger students would not be allowed to use their phones during the school day.
Edits made to the draft policy by the local district say that high school students would place their devices “in a designated location” in their classrooms, elementary school students would turn in their devices to homeroom teachers and middle school students would “stow devices in a designated area.”
Having the phones out of reach but still present in the classroom, Boron said, is a proposition that students are more likely to agree to and also allows that the devices be accessible in an emergency.
Isabelle Alamillo, the board’s student representative, said that having her phone close would make her feel “more comfortable with giving it up.”
Most of the board’s discussion on Tuesday centered on whether the phones should be required to be powered off — with some members saying screens lighting up or the sound of vibrations are distracting.
Haines principal Alex Van Wyhe said that deciding whether the phones can be on is secondary to ensuring that the school district works to set a cohesive and consistent expectation for students.
“It’s just a matter of setting the expectation and saying ‘here’s why,’” he said. “As a learning community within the building, we are working to emphasize the value of us being here together and of us being able to communicate with each other in the room — face to face.”
The policy language also describes prohibited conduct, like viewing websites “otherwise blocked” at school; using devices to harass, intimidate, bully or discriminate against another person; using the device to take photos or recordings in various inappropriate ways or using devices to access other people’s data or files.
Van Wyhe said he was happy to see that the policy leaves room for teachers to make use of the “very powerful tools that kids walk into the room with” where appropriate — like for photo or video projects.
Devices can be searched, under the policy, to determine ownership or retrieve emergency contacts, also if there is “reasonable suspicion” that a policy, rule or law has been broken. Boron said that policy speaks more to “benign” uses like seeing who a phone belongs to, and that the Haines school district would not be “in the business of searching cell phones.”
The school board said it they would make an effort to collect more feedback from staff and students ahead of a yet-to-be-scheduled meeting of the board’s policy committee to refine the proposal.
The next meeting of the board is scheduled for Nov. 4.