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Date: 8/2/2022
HADLEY – The Hadley School Committee discussed options for a new middle and high school cell phone policy including Yondr pouches, which could lock students’ phones for the entire day with a one-time use emergency release, at its meeting on July 25.
The committee reviewed survey responses from parents and teachers who differed in their concerns over the students’ phone usage and the distraction it created for themselves and the class. Seventy three percent of the 62 parent respondents said their child brings their phone to school. 57 percent of the parents said they contact their child via cell phone at school and the majority of written responses cited communication, safety, and listening to music during breaks or lunch as the main reasons for why their child brings a phone to school.
Fifty-five percent were “not at all” worried about their child’s use of a cell phone at school and 61 percent were “not at all” concerned that their child may have a hard time focusing on their education because of a cell phone. Ninety-two percent of teachers and staff, however, supported cell phone pouches and Superintendent Anne McKenzie said distractions caused by phones have continued to be a distraction for students despite the current policy, which is supposed to confiscate phones from middle school students all day and only allow high school students to be on their phones during meals or passing periods.
Mother of two students at Hopkins Academy Dana Whitney joined the meeting and said she opposed the pouch idea before the schools explore instituting more free methods of trying to dissuade cell phone usage, and before jumping to spending money on a solution.
“I’m mostly concerned about whole-school discipline for the actions of some students,” Whitney said. “I’d like to know what cost-free measures due to the cell phone pouches, what cost-free disciplinary measures Hopkins has already exhausted such as having students who are causing the problems turn in their cell phones to the principal at the beginning of the day, things like that, before we go to a costed measure that punishes the whole school.”
A Hopkins Academy student also joined the meeting to again ask why the proposal was to jump to a widespread, restrictive policy.
“I’m wanting to know why the initial reaction to the clear issues with cell phones at the school is a blanket statement for everyone rather than bringing up the problems with individual students who don’t seem to have been at all yet spoken to,” the student said. “It just seems like a reaction that won’t actually involve teaching students responsible cell phone use rather than just punishment even for those that have not participated in what’s trying to be covered.”
Hadley Police Chief Michael Mason referenced the shooting inside the Hadley Walmart bathroom in August of 2021 in a response to concerns from parents about their kids needing a phone to call 911 or communicate with parents in the event of an emergency. Mason said the dispatch center only staffs one or two dispatchers at a time, and he recalled their dispatcher being flooded with calls on the night of the shooting that she then had to spend significant time going through and calling every number back.
“Obviously we want to get as much information as we can if there is a problem, but that’s also the reason that every classroom has a phone, a regular phone in the classroom,” Mason said. “That’s also why we give the principals or the staff at the front of the building the radio that can call directly to dispatch, and it’s also why we have a cell phone radio app that turns their cell phone into a radio to contact dispatch.”
McKenzie and the committee emphasized that their view of the goal of updating the cell phone policy was not to be a punishment but to help the students minimize distractions and class time teachers spend monitoring and disciplining cell phone usage. McKenzie said that violations of the current cell phone policies violated 10 percent of disciplinary infractions in the 2021-2022 school year and that cost-free methods previously exhausted include the handbook rules of calls to the parents, detention and losing and turning in their cell phone.
McKenzie said the committee is working to make a thoughtful recommendation that considers the questions and concerns posed by a “wide range of stakeholders and also to acknowledge that the faculty and staff have overwhelmingly said, ‘There is an issue here and we need support in addressing it.’’’
“The motivation is not to punish students,” McKenzie said. “The concern is that what the staff and faculty are observing is that cell phones, notifications, that students are being driven to a level of distractibility that it is increasingly challenging for them to manage. The one that we lean into the most is really trying to engage with parents when students seem unwilling, or it may not be an act of deliberate insubordination but rather more for some they almost feel as though they are incapable of untethering themselves from their cell phone.”
A majority of the committee supported some type of updated regulation while still allowing at least high school students to have some access throughout the day to compromise with the teacher’s observations and opinions of the students and parents. Other possible remedies involved unlocked over-the-door organizers to hold phones in every classroom and locked safes in the classrooms.
McKenzie estimated that the door pouches are $30 each for a total of $750, the safes at $107 for a total of $2,685, and a year-one assumed cost for Yondr pouches for $25 per student with a one-time $500 shipping fee, making the total $6,300 for the first year with the price dropping to $13.50 per student in subsequent years. The Yondr pouch solution also requires additional staff to be available from 7 to 7:30 a.m. to supervise students locking their phones.
“I can’t think of a good reason why a student needs their cell phone during a school day,” committee member Ethan Percy said. “I know we can reference the survey data, a lot of the comments from the parents [said], ‘I need them to be responsive before and after school,’ or, ‘I need to text them if something changes,’ and the reality is that if we do a good job communicating with families through text messaging, email and phone if possible, that a lot of those reasons for the kids having their phones won’t necessarily be there anymore. What we kind of want to avoid is those distractions, that’s what’s really at the heart of this is keeping kids from getting distracted.”
Percy added that every student is given a Chromebook in addition to the classroom and office phones available to communicate with parents. Members Tara Brugger and Paul Phifer said they texted their kids at school and understood the convenience element for the parents while also honoring that the teachers overwhelmingly reported the need for a fix. Brugger said it was easier for parents to check in with students who might be having a bad day or need to talk about personal matters without having to go through administrators. The committee agreed that students who need to leave campus during the day for something like an internship or teaching assistant position at the elementary school should be allowed to regain phone access.
“As a parent, I text my son during school days which is probably, I’m part of the problem right but it’s very helpful if his practice changes, if his mom can’t pick him up, those are the kinds of things,” Phifer said. “Do I assume he’s looking at it at lunch? Yeah.”
School Committee Chair Humera Fasihuddin concluded the discussion by tasking the committee with continuing to search for alternative, ‘middle-ground’ solutions and to have the procedures for the finalized policy outlined before the students return on Aug. 30.