Last Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a statewide ban on smartphone use in public schools.
Tom Scarice beat him by 2 weeks.
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.
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.
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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