Citing mental health, Amarillo ISD looks at limiting students' cell phone use

At Monday’s Amarillo Independent School District meeting, the school board was presented with a comprehensive plan outlining cell phone use during the instructional day at district high schools.

Jay Barrett, the principal of AmTech Career Academy, and other school district leadership spoke about the need for a standard policy to deal with the disruptions to learning that teachers have observed in the classroom. Students’ addictions to their cell phones and social media were cited as major distractions.

During the meeting, he cited U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy's comments about the risk of harm to mental health issued last May in a news release: "There is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health,” Murthy said. "Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content, to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”

Barrett said that the district has an existing policy in place that outlines how schools can control cell phone usage. The new policy states that students shall not have their cell phones in use from the moment they step on campus until the moment they leave. Over the years, cell phones have been used as part of some classroom instruction, but with all students having Chromebooks, Barrett feels that there is no reason for a student to use their cell phone during class.

“We used them initially to help us educate students because we didn't have the technology in place, but now every student has a computer for class,” he said. "It's time to take a hard look at what cell phones have done to a whole generation of young people and maybe adults as well. Because through empirical research and data, (it shows) how it has rewired young people’s minds and how it has become an addiction.”

Barrett emphasized that the schools must educate parents that cell phones can be as harmful as they are helpful.

“In fact, they may be more harmful than helpful at certain ages,” he said. “We are taking a look at the mental health issues that have come about because of the over-usage of cellphones plus social media applications such as Snapchat where these students can arrange things on campus outside of what we want them to do. We have to make sure we are doing the right thing for our young people.”

According to Barrett, disruptions have been prominent in classrooms. From text messaging to social media, many students have diverted their attention from instruction.

“Many times, students are checking all of their sources on their phone rather than paying attention and participating actively in class engagement while they are sitting in class,” he said. “There are going to be people who really do not like this, but at the end of the day, we are doing what we know is best for our young people.”

Outlining how the policy will go for cell phone usage, Barrett said that when the first bell rings at high schools until the last bell of the school day goes off, students are to have their cell phones off and in their backpacks or purses out of sight. This will include on-campus lunch. If a student leaves campus for lunch or travel, the policy does not apply, and they can use their cell phones. He emphasized that there will be rare occasions for students to use their phones and that they may be permitted to use them in controlled situations like health monitoring.

According to Barrett, all school classrooms have hardwired phones that can be contacted from the office in case a student has a home emergency. He stressed that students would have email capability to receive and send messages to parents as needed.

“The district has spent $80 million to ensure that safety measures are in place, and hardwired phones are part of that,” he said. "There may be school leadership who may say that students may use their phones."

Barrett says that this solution is more practical and less invasive than having teachers have students lock their phones away or put them in sealed pouches during the school day.

“We believe this is going to help our teachers to enforce this policy with us to create more class time and more engaged learning with fewer interruptions to the learning environment,” he said. "The mental health of our young people is so important in this country, and if the surgeon general came out with a warning, which he does not do lightly, then we should take heed. We do not want to create a generation of dependents who cannot function without using this device and social media."

Parents and the School Health Advisory Council have provided feedback on addressing this issue, according to Barrett.

“Our board is fully behind this, and we are not really changing anything except the way we are implementing existing policy,” he said. “We have allowed the usage of cell phones for many years in classrooms to aid instruction, and it just became a standard for everybody to have their cell phone with them. We just must take a hard look at where we are today with the technology we have available to all students as standard.”

Implementing the new cell phone policy will take effect in August at the beginning of the new school year.

“We know this is going to be hard; anytime you have a change like this that so sweeping, it will be difficult at first,” he said. “We are going to try to work with and give grace, especially during the initial phase of the implementation of the policy, but there comes a time when we have told someone x number of times, we will have a conversation about this with students in a one-on-one basis to rectify the issue."