By WIN GRUENING
A recent uptick in student fights on and off campus in Juneau schools has administration officials looking for answers. It also has raised the issue of cell phone use in schools.
While the two issues are not directly linked, some parents and school officials feel that cell phone use can contribute to and facilitate the conditions leading up to fights between students. National data has shown the negative effects of cellphone use in schools on learning, mental health, cyberbullying, and teacher morale.
According to a 2023 Common Sense Media survey, 97% of 11- to 17-year-olds reported using their phones in some capacity during school hours and handling their phones around 13 times during the average school day. Those students used their phones for a median of 43 minutes (ranging from less than one minute to six and a half hours). The median number of pickups was 13 per school day, ranging from less than one to 229. The apps most used were social media (32% of smartphone use during school hours), gaming (17%), and YouTube (26%).
Currently in the U.S., 76% of public schools prohibit non-academic use of cell phones or smartphones during school hours. But that allows for a wide latitude in policy from schools that strictly prohibit these devices in classrooms to schools that allow them, but don’t permit their “inappropriate” use.
The Juneau School District policy is more closely aligned with the latter.
It states, in part: “The School Board recognizes that many students possess and use cell phones and other portable electronic devices. These devices serve an important purpose in facilitating communication between the student and his or her family, as well as serving as tools to access electronic information. In the school setting, portable electronic devices are permitted so long as their use is consistent with this policy and does not interfere with the educational process or with safety and security.”
Unfortunately, this policy often puts teachers in the unfair position of monitoring and enforcing a rather vague guideline when they believe that a student’s use of a cell phone is “interfering with the educational process.” This can lead to a policy on phone use that varies from school to school—sometimes even from classroom to classroom—and isn’t always enforced.
My granddaughter attends a public school in the Seattle area and her school district just introduced a Phone-Free School policy in all school buildings. She can keep her phone with her but is required to place it in Do Not Disturb mode (along with her smartwatch and earbuds) in a magnetically-locked Yondr pouch during the school day. The pouch can be unlocked by tapping it on an unlocking device whenever she leaves the “phone-free zone” at the school. That means she can use her phone at the end of the school day or anytime outside but cannot access it anywhere inside the school building during the class day without permission from a school official.
Yondr pouches are just but one of the many ways that middle and high school administrators are dealing with cell phone use. However, there are a wide variety of nuanced approaches that can be implemented depending on student grade level, budgetary limitations, and parent buy-in.
The ideal solution would be one that is acceptable to administrators, teachers, parents, and students. But that just isn’t realistic. Some school districts have found that the greatest pushback on phone restrictions comes from parents who believe that communication with their child should be available at all times. Certainly, exceptions can be made for students who have a documented need for an electronic device, whether for medical reasons or otherwise. But most students don’t require immediate access to phones all day while in school.
The Alaska State Board of Education recently adopted a resolution charging the Department of Education and Early Development with the advancement of a model policy limiting the use of cellular phones and other electronic communication devices during class hours in Alaska’s schools.
The Juneau School Board has signaled their intent to develop and implement such a policy. Other school districts in Alaska should consider following suit.
The sooner the better.
After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.
