The Staples High School PTA Executive Committee wrote a letter regarding superintendent of schools Thomas Scarice’s proposed cell phone ban. It was to be read at last Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.
When the session was canceled, the letter was emailed to all BOE members. A member shared it without consent, and it was published by a local media outlet.
The Staples PTA Executive Committee says: “To ensure transparency, we would greatly appreciate it if ‘06880’ shares this letter in its entirety with the Westport community. Anyone wishing to engage in further discussion should email us at shs_pta@westportps.org.”
Dear Members of the Westport BOE:
We, the members of the Staples High School PTA Executive Board, write to you as a united group concerning Superintendent Scarice’s proposed bell-to-bell cell phone (and personal device) ban at Staples High School.
For context, we are deeply committed to Westport Public Schools. We are the mothers of 25 current Staples students, 10 Staples graduates, and 11 kids rising from elementary and middle school.
Collectively we’ve spent 181 years inside of WPS, and our members have volunteered on 40 WPS executive PTA boards, including 15 turns as president. You’d be hard pressed to find a group more invested, with more historical knowledge, and with more school spirit than the current Staples PTA.
Cell phones are currently allowed, in certain places and times, at Staples High School.
First, we do not support the personal use of cell phones in the classroom. We believe kids should not have unfettered access to their phones, nor should they use phones for any unapproved personal reason inside of the classroom. That said, we unanimously oppose a school-wide cell phone (and personal device) ban, and we unanimously oppose the purchase of Yondr bags.
As you consider the various options on the road ahead, we feel it important to share 3 requests made to Superintendent Scarice at a meeting on March 19th:
- That separate community conversations be planned between parents — one for K-8, and another for 9-12.
- That a committee be formed, consisting of teachers, admins, students and parents.
- That the survey be sent after the community conversation. We are disappointed that none were realized.
You are already aware of our concerns for the replacement of cell phones inside the classroom as integrated by teachers. Many among our Staples staff count on – and expect – phones to be used by students as cameras, video recorders, calculators, scanners, and more. No workaround has been presented for these uses.
We are concerned about the unintended consequences of a cell phone ban, and believe that if kids cannot access phones during their free time, they will instead be more inclined to do personal business on their computers during classroom time, and thereby create a tremendous problem for teachers.
Regarding the wuperintendent’s justification for a ban, we maintain – based on hundreds of conversations with parents, students and even teachers – that there is not a cell phone problem inside of Staples High School.
Further, while there is a policy governing cell phone use, it is rarely enforced, largely up to teacher discretion, and unknown to most students and parents.
Should the WPS BOE deem Staples a candidate for tighter cell phone regulations, then why not just tighten the rules? And have students – and their parents – sign a code of conduct, just like we do for internet use and plagiarism. We are confident this is a prudent place to start.
We believe students should have access to their phones during lunch and free periods. We’ve heard you when you say that the lunchroom is a good place to have a conversation and “just talk.”
But if you were to visit the Staples cafeteria, you’d see that’s exactly what they do: they talk. Even with their phones on their person.
And please understand cell phones are how our students find one another in the lunchroom. It’s a huge space with hundreds of kids on a rotating schedule. They use their cells to find their friends, then sit and talk.
These are not Staples students. But they could be.
Much of this conversation relates to social media usage. The Staples PTA does not believe students should use–or have access to–social media during classroom time.
We are surprised that the Westport Public Schools do not block these sites off of the district networks. That seems like an easy solution. In addition to considering a clearer cell phone policy, we ask that you consider blocking these sites before a bell to bell ban.
Most concerning of the proposed cell phone ban is the cost associated with Yondr bags. Wilton Public Schools spent $80,000 with Yondr (not $1,800 as reported by the Westport Journal) – with a smaller student population (1,200 at Wilton HS versus Staples’ 1,700+), and magnetized the outside of their one school entrance. Staples uses 5 separate student entrances.
That doesn’t even take into account the manpower needed to lock and unlock the Yondr “stations” multiple times during each school day, and the staff needed to maintain the bags themselves. If Yondr bags are to be used, it’s prudent to plan extra head count to the Staples staff for these roles. And they are a recurring cost.
Yondr bags have a limited shelf life. and every freshman class will need new ones, at a cost of $25-30 per unit. That doesn’t account for lost and broken bags (currently at a rate of 2/week reported in Wilton).
Students entering Northbridge High School in Massachusetts present their Yondr pouches — with phones inside — to be locked. (Photo/Allan Jung for Worcester Telegram & Gazette)
Has anyone determined where the Yondr magnets will be mounted? They are affixed to concrete poles outside of Wilton High School; the Staples facade is glass and brick. Are there construction costs associated with bringing Yondr to Staples?
Finally, we know that the Staples population will soar to well over 1,800 in the next few years, and so we ask, what are the actual costs, both for now and into the future?
As an overall question: What is the perceived defined problem, and what is the measurable solution? We believe that a cell phone ban is a movement–applicable to elementary and middle schools–as opposed to an actual Staples problem, and without a clear issue to solve or goal to meet, this is all just symbolic.
We also maintain that our Staples students are bright, motivated, eager to learn, gracious with their time and community support, and overall good citizens. The Staples PTA is profoundly confident that if given structured rules around cell phone usage inside the classroom, our students will rise to occasion, without requiring a punitive, prison-like environment.
There is one constant report among Staples graduates: that they leave Staples High School ready for the next level, whether that be college, the work force or the military.
That is a testament to everyone involved in their educational journey, and why Staples is the #1 high school in the state. So let’s treat these students as the young adults they are.
Let’s give them parameters and structure, but most importantly, let’s give them latitude. Let’s trust them with their free time, to make good decisions, and embody the Westport Public Schools’ value system.
Let’s work together to empower them.
Sincerely,
Jodi Harris, Co-President
Stefanie Shackelford, Co-President
Elena Caggiano, VP-Past President
Marie Tyber, VP-Secretary
Lara Willis, VP-Treasurer
Michelle Macris, VP-Treasurer
Aileen Brill, VP-Ways & Means
Jenny Sydor, VP-Ways & Means
Ying Stafford, VP- Communications Sandy Srihari, VP-Volunteers
Tracy Benton, VP-Volunteers
Karina Betfarhad, VP-Graduation
Amie Peck, VP-Graduation
Pamela Bernstein, VP-Community Outreach
Maria Mulvehill, VP-Community Outreach
Caroline Hendley, VP-Member at Large
Totally agree with the PTA I believe it is unnecessary to spend and maintained these bags to prevent in school usage.
A rambling letter full of undocumented suppositions. The Surgeon General has issued a health advisory warning that social media, normally accessed via cell phones, poses a significant risk to the mental health and well being of young people. The Journal of the American Medical Association, after tracking teens age 13-18 on their cell phones found: (1) Students, on average, spend 90 minutes on their phones during the SCHOOL DAY; (2) 25% spend more than two hours on their phones during the SCHOOL DAY; (3) Most used apps included messaging, social media, video streaming, audio and/or emails; (3) Young ladies, ages 16-18, spend two hours of the school day on their phones. Stop the insanity. Cell phones, as used by our teens, are not being used to educate their minds. As such, they do not belong in our schools. Period.
Couldn’t have said it better. We need better stewardship of our kids and be the 1st line of defense for them. Kids need to talk to each other at lunch, or read a book or engage in non phone generated activity. Thank you for stating this!
Hi Carl, I agree with you that those numbers sound/are problematic. Could you help me understand how the current policy at Staples is not working? As the parent of a senior at Staples, I know each classroom is outfitted with hanging pocket organizers for student devices during classtime if the teachers choose to use them. I’m also not sure if you know this but nearly all students have Macbooks they use across all classes and Macbooks are essentially just larger computer versions of their iPhones. They can do all of the same things on the Macbook that they do on their phones (except they can do those things in the middle of class time discreetly). How does locking up phones decrease their device time when they still have their Macbooks? I’ve asked this many times and can’t seem to find anyone supporting the ban who has this answer.
Sorry, I do not have those facts. I merely researched the perils of cell phone in the class room and not alternative methods to bypass such ban.
I vehemently disagree and as a mom with a junior at Staples HS strongly believe in the research which backs removing cellphones from all schools.
Having recent grads from SHS, I KNOW there are usage policies in the classroom yet the teachers seldom enforce. Gets tough babysitting kids whipping out phones and – if reprimanded God forbid! – and dealing with aggressive parents objecting that their child is special, etc. If there’s an allowance made such as phones at lunchtime in the cafeteria and/or courtyard only, should be manageable. I’m sure the PTA is well intentioned but the arguments offered were not compelling.
I completely support the Staples PTA’s position on this issue as a current Staples ‘27 parent. Thank you PTA leadership!
Just curious how the area’s parochial schools are handling this “issue” (aka problem). I never went to parochial schools. I’m not Catholic but I have Catholic friends and they don’t seem to have this problem (issue).
I have a Staples senior and a freshman and I completely support the Staples PTA on this position. Thank you for your leadership!
With all due respect to the elderly readers of 06880. This is simply not an issue for a high school graduate of 1966 to weigh in on. (Nor parents of children who haven’t experienced the reality of high school for themselves.) As I speak to my own mother, I realize she does not understand the pressures of today’s world, the realities of what jobs and colleges expect in terms of facile technology use etc. There are many reasons for kids to use phones by high school, but the major one is the adult world they are entering (and are basically living in by the time they are higher up in Staples) expects them to know how to use their phones. We can always look to one evil or the next – and previous generations will say this is the new thing that will “ruin our kids.” Teach them appropriate and safe use of a technological reality that is not going away. As the PTA asks. What problem are we even solving for? If it is teachers who cannot enforce the classroom policy, that should not ride on the shoulders of the students.
Anytime someone prefaces a statement with “With all due respect” I reflexively bend over and get ready for a rectal exam from an unlicensed proctologist. Are you including Dan (Woog, not Katz) in your mean-spirited troll of the elderly (I prefer the term “senior citizens”)?
And I prefer the term “chronologically gifted.”
And I honor your preference because it’s what elderly gentlemen do with ladies, especially younger ones.
Attorney Swanson, as you deem too old to research the issue (which few commentators seem to have any inclination), has four (4) grandchildren in prep school. He is well aware of the issues & perils of the cell phone. Further it could be argued that those who grew up with the cellphone cemented to their hands, can not have an objective opinion of what school is like without them. As such, their opinion should be ignored not us Boomers.
Ms. Grove: I think you should be reminded that Bill Gates is 69 years old and Steve Jobs would have been 70 years old. Are you implying that age is a barrier to technological understanding as it appears to teenagers? I bet your mother gets a hoot on that critique as most real educators would and do.
People who are not IN or parenting current high school students commenting on what a high school environment is like, or should be like, is not dissimilar than men telling women what their reproductive rights should be. For the record, my Staples junior is not phone addicted. She’s not social media addicted. She is a weekly tech help desk volunteer at the senior center where everyone there deeply appreciates the ease with which she can help them with their phones. Every college she is applying to has her check in on line for a tour. They send her texts. And they will expect her to be phone proficient when she drops down on campus. As does her current employer at the Sr. Center when she checks if she will make it to work that week and all future employers she will have. I do not dare comment on the lives of retirees. So I simply ask that they do not comment on the high school life of my daughter. This is a family and parenting decision at its core. The phones are not an issue in the high school and the hysteria surrounding it is causing more anxiety to the kids than the phones themselves! There are many many reasons the kids should be allowed phones, just not in an actual classroom.
Whose retired? And I have taught in the classroom from 8th grade history to con law in law school. I find it narrow minded and naive for a teen mother to say that nobody other than a mother in her same position, knows what it is like to endure the horrors of doing without a cell phone for 8 hours during school. And your entire dissertation is based conjecture and hearsay.
That comment makes no sense to me, from start to finish.
If teachers can’t enforce classroom policy it’s on the teachers? So kids aren’t responsible for their own behavior?
Kids won’t know how to use phones if they don’t bring them to school? Phones are so intuitively designed that we’re having this discussion because kids use them all of the time!
“Pressures of today’s world” style comments always recall to me the words of basketball coaching great Abe Lemons. Upon hearing Digger Phelps remark on the pressure of being an 18- or 19-year-old basketball player at Notre Dame, Lemon’s said, “I bet that an 18 year old Marine with his face down in the sand, under fire at Iwo Jima was thinking to himself, ‘Gee, I’m glad I’m not a freshman at Notre Dame.'”
I am a current parent of school children and I think we all have a lot to learn from those that came before us. Environments change, human nature does not. No one age group or side should be the only voice. Yes we the parents make the decisions and are “closer” to the issue, but more information usually improves a decision.
Plus, as some mentioned – tech giants that created today’s technology are also AARP level.
Seniors – you are the foundation upon which our generation is built and our goal is to strengthen it.
Thank you for this well thought out statement. The other points I would add are:
– what is the policy for non-compliance of a cell phone ban and who/how is this managed (is this the current issue today with the classroom pockets)?
-how many FTE will need to be hired to manage the system on an hourly/daily basis
-how many FTE will need to be hired to get messages left in the office to students?
-will students be searched, and by whom, if they declare at the door that they do not have their phone with them?
Thank you!
This is a family decision and can 100% be managed at home. For parents who do not want their student to have their phone they can chose to keep the phone at home.
But the kids with the phones create the distractions in the classroom that disrupt the learning experience for everyone.
To your questions in the other comment…
Maybe I’m too old, but enforcement seems easy:
1. Warning (with confiscation), 2. Detention (presuming detention is still a thing), 3. Suspension, 4. Expulsion. Easy, peasy.
No FTE’s necessary. I mean, the students aren’t allowed to bring a lot of things to school, but they aren’t being wanded at the door, that I am aware. The presumption will be that the kids will obey the rule until proven otherwise.
When I was a student, before cell phones, I think the assistant principals did it, but it was very rare. If a parent calls with a non-urgent message, maybe they should just be told to tell the student when s/he gets home?
Searches – again, I suspect it would be no different than other banned items.
These are some creative concerns!
Very telling that despite its verbosity, this statement doesn’t identify any benefit to students or teachers from having phone access throughout the day. Sounds like a group that’s just as addicted to their phones as their kids are.
I propose a ban to bans of cellphone bans!
(As an aside, it’s awfully rich for the PTA to cite cost, when any time anyone questions even the slightest expenditure in a proposed BOE budget, the PTA hyperventilates as if they are trying to destroy our school system. We’re fixing to embark on a $100 million school building project that will benefit 400 students. But the cost of these bags is a problem? Spare me.)
Howard County Public Schools in Maryland banned the use of cell phones for all students. The policy, as part of Howard County Board of Education Policy 8080, requires students to keep their cellphones and other personal devices silenced and out of sight from the first bell to the last bell. From what I understand, the students overwhelmingly supported this.
I think we are only focused on the bad. There are many positive reasons to keep phones at the high school – for learning and safety reasons, but also access to music, meditation apps, and other tools for those with social and other type of anxieties in a large school.
By the time they get to the high school, part of the mandate is to get young men and women ready for college and the real world. Shutting off all access to phones is not representative of the real world – let’s use the shoe holders consistently in every classroom, maybe even shut off access to social media, and see how that works before going to extremes.
Neta, It’s only for 6 hours a day. I would bet if there was secret ballot vote by students, they would support the ban. There is stress involved with constant cellphone use. See what the kids think by a secret ballot vote!
Neta, You can’t use cell phones in church as the service is being conducted. My dentist has a sign “No cell phone use” in her office. Can anyone think of other public places where adults can’t use cell phones? It’s not uncommon to ban cell phone use. How about in court? Can you take out your cellphone and gab?
With all due respect, I think Superintendent Scarice needs to step up to the plate and make a decision. Actually, multiple decisions: 1. Whether he wants to stay as superintendent or follow Tooker when she fulfills the Peter Principle in Hartford.
2. Whether or not he has enough input to make a decision on cellphones. 3. Whether or not the community gardens needs a bathroom like the one Ms. Fava provided at Compo South Beach before she abruptly departed because the gardeners won’t be allowed access to the new Long Lots Elementary School (and porta potties are SO Bridgeport). 4. Whether or not he wants to punt this entire “issue” to the parents. 5. Whether or not he wants to simply assume the parental role and ignore the parents (very popular these days for unelected public officials to tell the taxpayers what they’ll have to do). Have I left anything out? I’ll be 73 in a month and my short-term memory is slipping.
As a parent of three children in Westport Public Schools, I enthusiastically support banning phones at Staples. There is a wealth of research on the harm that cell phones cause to our children and their development, as outlined in books like The Anxious Generation by Johnathon Haidt. Banning phones in school will have a myriad of benefits including minimizing distractions, access to games and inappropriate websites, the harm of social media, and potentially the temptation to cheat. Most importantly it will allow teachers to teach rather than policing phone use, which is not their job. Technology companies use human psychology to make their products as addictive as possible, and the brain development and social pressures of adolescents make them especially susceptible to these temptations, and the harms especially acute. Merely being in close proximity to a phone can be an intense distraction that can be impossible to resist.
It’s concerning that the PTA is either not considering or not attempting to refute any of this evidence, but rather puts forth a nebulous argument full of unsupported suppositions. For example, the logically inconsistent statement that if kids cannot use their phones during free time, then they will use their computers inappropriately during class, and that even if so, this would somehow be more problematic for teachers than kids using their phones during class. They also say that current rules are not enforced, so teachers should enforce tighter rules, but do not clearly explain what those tighter rules would be or how teachers would be able to enforce tighter rules when they are unable to enforce looser ones. They also cite their “most concerning” aspect of the ban is the cost of Yonder Bags, but this argument and math also doesn’t add up… it’s not clear how Wilton spent $80K on $25-$30 bags for 1200 students, which only adds up to $30-$36K, or more importantly how this modest amount of money is truly at issue, or a primary issue as the PTA contends, given the scale of this issue.
Our wonderful teachers are there to teach should not face the Sisyphean task of monitoring and enforcing adolescents’ cell phone use. Our teachers deserve to be able to teach and not be constantly enforcing cell phone rules, or being forced to look the other way, and our children deserve an environment free from these temptations, distractions and corrupting influences.
I went to Staples (Class of ‘70) and I studied English under Mr. Arciola (the nice one, not the mean one that always makes fun of Westport) so I can explain that a Sisyphean task is one that borrows from the story of Sisyphus, a somewhat masochistic character in Greek mythology. Not all of the readers went to Staples and I wanted to be considerate of them.
First, thank you to the Staples PTA for this thoughtful, sound, and balanced take. I fully agree and can attest they speak for this Staples parent as well as the majority of other Staples parents with whom I’ve spoken about this issue.
As not just the parent of high school senior and former educator, but as a former teenager/high schooler, I would also like to understand what will stop a student from saying they left their phone at home and bypassing these locked bags when their phone is actually at the bottom of their backpack or hidden on their person? Are we searching kids’ bags, pockets, and person each day? Because that’s violating, not exactly legal, and seems pretty time intensive to boot. What happens if a girl has her phone shoved in her bra? Are we searching her?
To me, this is going to be unenforceable and a waste funds and time and staff time.
I am struggling to understand how everyone has forgotten what it’s like to be a teenager. I would assume within weeks many students will still have their phones with them.
The bags are counterproductive to a healthy, trusting relationship between the school and the students, eg introducing the bags suggests that students cannot be trusted to know when to put their phones away. If we have to enforce a rule in such a draconian way then we’re not doing a good job of communicating why it’s important. Staples students are some of the brightest teens in this country, they understand better than most adults that constant phone access isn’t good for them and deserve to be allowed some personal responsibility and trust on this. I think there’s a straightforward approach that’s worth a try – no phones except at lunchtime, an agreement signed by students and parents that supports teachers’ ability to enforce this, no personal phones to be required for class work ever and blocking access to social media from the school networks. All combined with clear communication to the students about the benefits to their health and education. Thanks Staples PTA Board for drawing attention to this.
Ban them end of story. Let keep it simple as other States have done. The ‘kids’ will survive…
New York leaders have approved a ban on cellphones in K-12 public schools, Bloomberg reports. School districts must implement a bell-to-bell plan by Aug. 1, restricting device use throughout the school day, including lunch. California, Florida and Virginia have imposed similar limitations.
I am all for no phones in the classroom. Middle School students must keep their phones in their lockers at school. They are not allowed in the classroom at all. Why can’t Staples have a similar policy? It works at the middle school level. The Yondr bags seem invasive, show a distrust of our kids and are a waste of money as they are unenforceable. Are we going to search the students who say they don’t have a phone?
Some thoughtful, research-based articles about why a ban (which is essentially a form of social control with little thought behind it) is not supported by all in academic circles:
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/14/most-americans-back-cellphone-bans-during-class-but-fewer-support-all-day-restrictions/
https://www.edweek.org/technology/opinion-why-school-cellphone-bans-are-a-bad-idea/2024/11
https://www.educationnext.org/ban-the-cellphone-ban-blanket-policies-ignore-potential-app-powered-learning/
At least one of them is written by a current owner of a technology learning company. No conflict interest there.
I support more stringent rules on cell phones during the school day, but I do not believe Yond’r pouches are the solution. Anecdotally, I have heard from students at Wilton High School that a very high percentage of students have found ways to get around locking up their phones: say they left it at home, say they don’t have a phone, or lock up their graphing calculator for the day. Even the typically rule-following students are finding ways to keep their phones. The bathrooms are full of students on their phones during the day.
Reading this letter, I did not find any strong arguments against banning the cellphone usage during school hours. The superintendent has made stronger arguments why cellphones should not be used in school, and there was also a visit Wilton High (where cellphones have been banned) to see in person the effect it had on students.
Surprisingly, this letter is using the Parent-Teacher Association as a weight for their opinion. Does it mean that the PTA has spoken to the teachers, and they share the same views? Or is this is just the views of 15 parents?
This is an important point. The title of the opinion suggests that the entire PTA opposes the proposed ban. That can only happen when the entire PTA membership has voted to take that position at a properly noticed meeting of the organization at which a quorum is present. If that has not happened, it needs to be clarified.
Good point, Marla. I mention the PTA Executive Committee twice in the introduction, but — to keep it concise — I said “PTA” only in the headline. I’ll change the headline now.
Funny that we have octogenarians pontificating on HS parenting in 2025. As a “veteran” of the process with three daughters in their 20’s, I wish you all well in your endeavors, personally I think time away from the phone is healthy.
Regardless of your views on this topic, I’m forever impressed by the parental commitment, it’s what makes Westport schools so special. My parents advocated for me in the 70’s, we did it for our kids in the 00’s, you’re on the front lines now!
I urge Mr. Woog to study Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Act laws as they pertain to public records. We at the Westport Journal were the ones who published the letter on Aug. 4 from the Staples PTA executive board, and as editor of that site I stand behind our decision.
Regardless of whether there was “consent,” the second that correspondence reaches the emails of the Board of Education, it becomes public record open to public scrutiny. It does not need to be read into record at the meeting, as was the intent before the meeting was canceled, to become public record and therefore available to your eyes.
This is what respectable journalists do – we hold public officials accountable and we make sure that you always have information in front of you, the voters, so you know what your government is up to. We don’t wait for public officials to tell us what they’ve consented to.
Access to public records is a hill I will die on, and I thank and congratulate those public officials who remain transparent and help journalists do their job correctly.
Teachers should know better than anyone whether cell phones in school are a detriment, a benefit or have no effect on the learning environment overall, etc. Mr. Scarice should conduct an anonymous poll among the teachers to help determine whether cell phones should be allowed. If 2/3rds of the teachers or more vote to support the ban, there is your answer. Listen to the educators!