BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – School policies across the Brazos Valley are changing as cell phone use and technology continues to expand.
College Station and Leon ISDs have different school policies on cell phone use in schools, but both are working to keep students engaged and safe in the classroom.
“A lot of people have strong feelings, you know, both sides,” said College Station ISD Superintendent Tim Harkrider. “Some [say] phones should never be in schools, and you have other folks that [say], ‘absolutely my kid needs to have their phone on them at all times.’ So, there’s that balance.”
College Station ISD allows cell phones in the school and even cell phone use during class time with teacher approval, according to its student handbook. This allows the teachers to dictate when students use technology to help their learning experience and when they should be focused on instruction.
“What kids post on Instagram, Snapchat, and the other different platforms; that’s probably the biggest distraction; is what’s being said or what’s being stirred up behind the scenes,” Supt. Harkrider explained. “I think that’s the conversations we want to have, is ‘what’s that balance that we get what we want?’ which is engaged students in the classroom, and maybe some time away from a phone for all of us. That includes myself.“
The Leon ISD Student Handbook also allows cell phones in the classroom for safety purposes, but a new policy was put in place this year: All phones are expected to be turned off and put away during the school day.
“We want to remove as many distractions as [we] possibly can,” shared Leon ISD’s Supt. Clint Sadler. “With cell phones today, and the amount of social media that goes out there, our students’ phones will just ping all the time- just constantly during class- and so for the students, it’s kind of something we want them to be free from.”
Last Wednesday, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath spoke out on the use of cell phones in classrooms during a Senate Education Committee hearing.
“If it were in my power, I would have already banned them in all schools in the state,” Commissioner Morath announced.
There are schools across Texas that have, as Commissioner Morath put it, “proactively taken an approach to banning cell phones… Administratively, this is a very doable thing.”
Texas Senator Donna Campbell (R- District 25) responded by saying that since districts have banned cell phones in the past successfully, “everything doesn’t take legislation, it takes leadership.”
Leon ISD has a zero tolerance policy for cell phones in the classroom. If a student is seen using a cell phone after one verbal warning, the phone is immediately taken up by the teacher and passed onto administration.
“There was a policy in the past and it was not zero-tolerance and… It really put a lot of pressure on our teachers,” said Supt. Sadler. “It makes it more difficult for them because now, this teacher may enact it a little bit differently than the teacher next door.”
Both Leon and College Station ISDs student handbooks say that if a student uses a personal phone without permission, teachers can collect the device to be taken to the principal’s office. After that, the principal can decide to return a phone to the student at the end of the day or to contact their parents.
The handbooks outline how technology can and should be used to enhance learning, but the students are also expected to follow an Acceptable Use Policy while using district-owned technology resources.
“If we were to explore a change in our current policy, you know, you’ve got to be very careful about being too restrictive,” Supt. Harkrider advised. “What does that balance… Look like?”
Since the change in policies, Supt. Sadler told KBTX student engagement has improved.
“January last year, I saw a lot more cell phone usage than I see now,” boasted Supt. Sadler. “I’m not going to say that there’s never a student that’s ever on their cell phone. I’m sure that there are situations that occur where that happens, but at the same time, I do believe that it’s gone down, and I do believe that our engagement from our students has gone up.”
Supt. Harkrider told KBTX the school expects to send out surveys next July to parents, teachers, and students to reevaluate their policy with the help of the community.
“We’re going to have conversations with principals on the positives and negatives,” Supt. Harkrider added. “We also will survey our staff as well as our parents to get feedback on cell phone use and see where our community is to see if it’s something that we want to take a look at for the 25-26 school year.”
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