Last Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a statewide ban on smartphone use in public schools.
Tom Scarice beat him by 2 weeks.
Earlier this month, Westport’s superintendent of schools offered a plan like Newsom’s, on a smaller scale: our town’s 5 elementary schools, 2 middle schools — and Staples High.
It’s a stark reversal from current policy.
But it comes on the heels of a nationwide debate on smartphone use by children and teenagers.
It’s in line too with a drive by Greens Farms Elementary parents — and at other schools — to not give smartphones to youngsters until after 8th grade.
Currently, all smartphones (and wearable technology) is banned at the elementary level. Middle school students must put them in lockers or backpacks for the school day.
Staples students are required to put personal technology devices in wall-mounted holders during class time.
Smartphone holder.
Scarice’s proposal would make all Westport Public Schools “completely ‘phone-free’ environments” (including wearable technology).
The district would use “tools and/or methods that do no require faculty and staff to be responsible for the primary enforcement” of those restrictions.
That is the superintendent’s “unequivocal recommendation,” as conveyed in a memo to the Board of Education and parents. (Click here for the full document.)
However — mindful of the importance of community input — he will withhold any implementation plan until he determines there is “sound consensus (not necessarily unanimity)” supporting the move.
Scarice cites many reasons for the recommendation. They include the dangers of smartphone addiction; distraction and lack of focus; adverse effects on mental health; the potential for cyberbullying. and improved academic performance in “phone-free” schools.
He adds that smartphone use currently accounts for “a preponderance of student discipline matters,” and that teacher enforcement of the current policy is “unsustainable.”
There will be exceptions. They include students who need smartphones because of medical conditions like diabetes or disabilities.
Students may bring their own laptops and tablets. The district’s technology department will continue to block access to certain websites and apps.
Scarice understands that parents want to communicate with their children during the day. Tools exist to allow alternatives to smartphones. “It will be a matter of finding the most effective, if there is the collective will,” he says.
Addressing concerns that smartphones may be needed in the event of an emergency, the superintendent notes that there are hardwired phones throughout the schools — and over 300 smartphones in the hands of adults at Staples.
It has taken a few years — and a great deal of thought — for Scarice to come to his present position.
Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice.
He expects a robust discussion on his proposal, involving all stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, administrators, first responders, pediatricians, child psychologists and more.
He wants people to weigh in. But he holds no illusions that there will be easy answers.
“It’s like school start times. This is a heavy lift,” he says.
He also notes that there may be differences within groups. Older parents, he hypothesizes, might have one predominant view; younger ones, with elementary and middle school students, may have another.
Scarice hopes the debate will be thoughtful, and nuanced.
“Will students be against it?” he asks rhetorically.
“They could be. But the question shouldn’t just be ‘should we ban phones?’ We can ask, ‘How might your school experience be different without smartphones?'”
Scarice — who prefers conversations to surveys — plans to engage teachers and administrators in small-group settings. At Staples, he may meet with each department separately. The technological needs of science teachers, for example, may be very different from English or art instructors.
There are plenty of solutions, he says. And many of them may be obvious.
“Look at what a smartphone does. There are other devices for a lot of them. You can do a lot with a calculator and camera.”
The issue of smartphone use is not abstract. Scarice is not just the superintendent of a district with over 5,300 students.
He’s also the father of 3. Two of his children are in college. One is in high school.
“I relate to all this. I text my kids all the time,” he admits with a laugh. “I’m guilty.”
Not long ago, Scarice was about to address a PTA meeting. His phone vibrated. His son texted that he did not have enough money in his lunch account.
Scarice transferred funds, texted his son that it was done, then spoke at the meeting.
“Would it have been better if he sucked it up for a day? Sure,” Scarice says.
“And I suspect he was in class when he texted me.”
Scarice knows too that the district itself has made technology an integral part of the school day.
“Google Suite, Schoology, PowerSchool for grading — we use all of them to ‘conduct school.'” The IT department is looking into ways to use those tools without smartphones.
Superintendent Scarice (and Governor Newsom) did not start the debate about smartphones in schools. It’s simmered for a while.
But recently — sparked in part by Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” — a national conversation has blazed.
The body of research is still small, Scarice knows.
But, he says, “I wanted to open the conversation. I dug into that nascent research. I collected information, and made my recommendation to the Board of Ed.
“Now we have to engage all the stakeholders. Then we’ll come to a consensus, and figure out operationally how to make it work.”
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it’s great to see Westport at the forefront of this movement.
As usual far Ahead of the curve. Kudos education dept. Might want to consider counseling for students with cell phone withdrawal!!!
I hope westport is still using issued devices, if not, kids are texting away on their PC’s, playing chess, video games etc, all during class time.
I work in a classroom.
So glad this is happening. I believe smartphones have ruined people’s attention as well as ability to be social in person. Adolescents, especially, hide behind them when they feel shy. Better to learn to deal with shyness.
Ban the damn things from school. 43% of college students are complaining of anxiety and PTSD. Used to be told to “go to your room” was a punishment, now it is met with glee. The poor young men are having less sex because they do not know how to interact with the young ladies. Stop the madness.
I am strongly for having cell phones usable during school hours at Staples High School.
I understand that each family may feel differently on this topic, and these are family decisions that need to be made at home. If a family does not want their student to have a cell phone in high school during the day, they need to establish that rule as a family and keep the cell phone home during the school day.
I am the mom of a 10th grader and incoming 9th grader and through the experience of my 10th grader I can share that he needs to have access to his cell phone during the school day. He relies greatly on the Saturn application in order to understand his class schedule, communicate with other students, and just overall flow of the day. Without having access to this application, I believe it would create an extraneous cognitive load on many students minds, creating anxiety and taking up space that should be used for learning.
I also strongly believe students need access to their phones during the day because of communication with families. My son texts me throughout the day (in between class time) to let me know changes in his after school schedule (meeting with teachers, needing extra time on tests, clubs changing etc). I have heard the option of using email on their computers to communicate with families during the day (as with Saturn), however, this would mean that during class time students will be opening up their computers to communicate with their families about their activities instead of being focused on their classes (they cannot email and walk to their next class at the same time). My son has also said that the majority of the teachers either use the cell phone pockets or students keep their cell phones in their backpacks in his classes. He has not seen a huge problem with technology being used while teachers are teaching.
I believe it is not a good use of our school district resources to purchase bags for cell phones to be used and then also purchase the technology to open and close those bags at the beginning and the end of the day (not to mention the resources to check bags, correct issues and man the phone lines so parents can reach their students). Currently, Staples has many entrances and exits during the day, which are needed for the large amount of students at that school. I do not believe that using our financial resources on technology to open and close cell phone bags is financially responsible, especially while an easy (and free) solution is to having families manage this at home.
With all due respect, Ms. Winslet, the purpose of your child in school is to learn from teachers and NOT to communicate with their family. If your child needs to be comforted by his mother during school hours, you have some issues at home.
👋 like button kaput 🙏🇺🇸
With all due respect, Ms. Miller, did you not read Ms. Winslet’s comment? I have to wonder if you either did not read it, did not read it carefully or were just not able to understand it. The reasons put forward for communication with her son had nothing to do with his being “comforted” (your word not hers). Perhaps you should try reading the comment again and perhaps not concern yourself with another woman’s “issues at home.”
I did read Ms. Winslet’s comment in full and I am not unfamiliar with the need of many of my co-worker Moms who communicate incessantly all day with their kids and much of it is of little substance at all. I seriously doubt that a 9th grader is enraptured with his homework or class scheduling. More like he or she is bored. And sadly, we are seeing serious repercussions of such behavior when they, at some point, leave the nest.
Do you know Ms Winslet’s history of communication with her child? Do you know what the substance is of their communication? Do you know her child’s degree of enrapture vis a vis his homework or class scheduling? Do you know if he is bored easily? Or are you just venting for the sake of venting about people you know nothing about?
Chill out Frank. It’s Westport being Westport.
Do you know all those characteristics and issues Marrone regarding the Winker boys or just being a dickhead? I do know that any cellphone is a hot bed for bullying, sexual predators, false information and a slew of other traits which are leading to one jacked up generation. I also know that 14 & 15 year old boys should be talking to friends between classes or if deeply disturbed, talking to Staples’ highly trained guidance and social workers, not their Mommy.
“Slew of other traits” Hmmm, would one of those traits be using foul language in a public forum? Surely that wasn’t taught in SHS in the 60’s. And can’t boys not talk to friends AND use their phones. Or is doing those two things mutally exclusive…for you?
So I surmise from your misdirection of focus that you have no knowledge of the Winkler young men and are just being meddlesome. Figures, just a troll blowing smoke out of his butt.
Frank, histrionics aside, Superintendent Scarice has asked for parental support to do a difficult job, which is to help Westport children learn the fundamental skills necessary to success in a world where technology has become the enemy not the facilitator of learning attainment. He knows his job and is accountable to the taxpaying parents for results. He specifically asserts that cellphones have no place in school. What is your basis for opposing that?
And where did I say I opposed it? I just objected the rude, snide and dismissive attitude of the posts I was responding to. Too many blowhards weighing in about people they know nothing about.
Good point Frank. Now you and Carl kiss and make up. You are Westporters and it is, after all the most wonderful month of the year.
The problem with trolls like Marrone is that they merely stir the pot with moronic questions. They voice no opinion. I am sure Ms. Winkler’s long post was heartfelt but there is substantial evidence that cell phones are stifling our younger generation in many ways aforementioned and certainly do not belong in schools. Bet your bottom dollar, good ole Frank is a MAGA.
You lost. It seems you bet with the same skills you use in reading comprehension. BTW eactly which questions did you find moronic? Oh, and suddenly adding Ph’d to the end of your name doesn’t excuse any of your rudeness to the original poster. You really want my opinion? It’s one I share with my high-school teacher son: No cell phones in school. And no parenting other people’s children.
A HA! So, Mr. Marone, your real complaint and mission is to rid the blog of us “blowhards” and not the use of cellphones in schools. If you slowly read the responses of myself and Attorney Swanson, YOU are the one with the bombastic and rude responses in the form of confrontational questions. So, perhaps you are the one with issues. On a side note, if you research Ms. Winkler, she warned the Easton Police Department of the danger of using cell phones.
This is an interesting conversation because it goes to the main benefit/flaw of the parent/child piece of these devices which is the ability to be in constant immediate communication. Some of this is great! 25 years ago, If I wanted to stay late at school and couldn’t reach my mom or dad I might give up that opportunity because I wasn’t sure if anyone would be able to get me after the bus left. On the other side, not having a permanent phone-a-parent option to fix everything that was popping up during the day, large or small, meant I needed to make the decisions and figure out how to prioritize, schedule myself and make tradeoffs. Along with many of the very clear benefits of fewer devices (decreased bullying, focus on human relationships in the building versus staring at phones), it seems like this is that tradeoff, which some parents and kids will hate since they’ve been used to that constant connection and some might learn to really like.
Simple “choice” solution:
1. If you want to make the commitment, then home school your kids according to CT State curriculum requirements.
2. If you can’t handle your kid for a school day, or have better things to do with your time than get bogged down with your kids, let Scarice and his team of overworked and underpaid teachers handle it. But you keep the cellphones at home.
The kids are wusses and the parents are worse.
Nothing is worse than a wuss.
I wonder how many additional front office people will need to be hired to run messages to students during the day when appointments get changed etc. I’ve seen the ‘drop off’ table outside is typically full, will students need to leave class to call home when they’ve forgotten something? How many people will need to be hired to manage the ‘cell phone bagging’ process?
This can all be solved with students at home. If you don’t want your student to have their cell phone at school than please take it from them every morning.
So many resources being used (boe etc), when in reality this is a family conversation.
And for those who have decided to be nasty (in the comments) Clearly you don’t have students in high school or else you’d take this more seriously. Your comments only make you look bad- totally your problem, not mine!
Simply out of curiosity, did you have a cell phone when you were in high school? If not, how did you deal with having forgotten something?
There is no question that cell phones, and much of current technology, have made many things, particularly communication, easier. On the other hand, they have become non-essential crutches solving problems that exist solely due to their existence as a solution.
I think Mr. Meucher’s comment above is spot on. And from my own experience with five kids, your problems are just beginning if you have two boys, 15 & 16, especially in this town. Ask your mother and father what they think of you mindset regarding cellphones and the, seemingly, constant need to have contact with them. I do have one question for you: are your sons working this summer?