Another Win for The Man ;-) KRMS Policy Change Regarding Cell Phone Use

Hopefully you have seen the notification about our updated policy regarding cell phone use in school.  Our Handbook now states:

Personal Electronic Devices – The use of personal electronic devices (cell phones, ipods, etc.) during the school day (7:35-2:32) is prohibited.  Students needing to contact their parents must go to the main office.  All personal electronic devices must be kept in a student’s locker during the school day.  Cell phones and other personal electronic devices may be used before school and on the bus; however, the taking of video and still pictures is prohibited. Use of all electronic devices, personal or school, during anytime at school or a school event is subject to the KRSD Responsible Use Policy.  The viewing of videos or playing video games with content inappropriate for school is not allowed at anytime.

Personal Electronic Devices may not be used at any other times during the school day (7:35am-2:32pm), including in the hallway and cafeteria.

I, for one, am very glad for the change.  As a School Counselor, I deal with multiple issues that stem from situations regarding cell phones each day – whether it be something hurtful posted on social media; lack of sleep due to the use of a tech device at all hours of the night; struggling to keep up with academics due to the incredibly strong distraction of a phone (even with notifications turned off!);  and even serious stress due to the constant comparing of oneself to others’ online presence.  Even though students may be upset about this policy change, I believe there is a certain amount of relief that will be felt in having a break from that pull during the school day.  I think it is fair to say that we all can struggle with maintaining balance with our technology use, and to expect a child to make good decisions with unsupervised use is not realistic.  Some of the greatest minds in the world are designing these devices to draw us in more and more … and while I know our students are amazing, I don’t think it’s fair to expect them to self-regulate.  They need help.  Those pre-frontal cortexes of theirs have another 10 to 15 years to fully develop!  Hence, our updated policy.

Along this line, I subscribe to some great blogs regarding technology use that I highly recommend.  One that I have mentioned before is Tech Talk Tuesdays, that I discovered through the Screenagers website.  There was a recent post that addressed tech use in schools that you can check out here.  Another fantastic resource is the Wait Until Eighth blog, which encourages parents to wait until at least 8^th grade to allow their child to have a smartphone.  There is a post from last April entitled “Why Phones Don’t Belong in School” that does a beautiful job of explaining the reasoning behind our new policy.  It’s a quick read if you’d like to check it out here.  And finally, one of our teachers recently shared another blog post from Wait Until Eighth that powerfully illustrates the everyday impact our digital age can have on a student.  The blog post, entitled “Middle School Misfortunes Then and Now, One Teacher’s Take” can be read here.  I strongly encourage this read!

As always, we would absolutely love to hear your thoughts regarding our posts here on Symbiosis!!  Please share.  J  We know that cell phone use in schools can be a charged topic, so feedback is especially welcome.  Thank you!