Are you a student or parent of one at Stanley-Boyd?
Listen up: changes are coming to the district’s policy on personal communication devices.
Currently in the policy manual under number 5136 - Personal Communication Devices, the district is defining phone use more restrictively—no more check-ins between classes!
Read for the first time at the June board meeting, the new policy as proposed strikes language allowing personal communication device (PCD) use before or after school, at lunch, and between classes “as long as it does not create a distraction or disruption.”
Left below this is a single sentence: “In order to avoid disruption of the educational environment and protect student’s right of privacy, student use of PCDs is prohibited on school grounds during school hours. PCDs intended or actually used for instructional purposes such as “taking notes, recording classroom lectures, writing papers will be permitted, “as approved by the building principal.” Use of PCDs to engage in non-education related communications is expressly prohibited, as is using a PCD in a manner that could create in the mind of a reasonable person the impression of being threatened, harassed, or humiliated, among other things. Moreover, “students shall have no expectation of confidentiality with respect to their use of PCD’s on school premises or property,” all carryovers from the previous policy.
The language shift, from less to more restrictive, comes as new research shows that intermittent phone use actually strengthens attachment to the device.
“It provides a bigger dopamine hit,” district superintendent Jeff Koenig said of allowing students use of the devices between classes. Dopamine, the brain’s reward system, drives attachment to the devices.
The more restrictive policy also lays down clear parameters for staff to enforce, while leaving untouched a sentence on parent child communication.
“Parents are advised that the best way to get in touch with their child during the school day is by calling the school office,” the policy states.
Official as of next month’s reading at school board, the more restrictive phone policy should be in force for next school year.