A few years ago singer Carly Rae Jepson told her fans to “call me maybe.”
St. Mary’s County students will still be able to do that if they wish, but now there will be restrictions in place after the board of education modified the school systems’ cellphone policy.
At the board’s July 17 meeting, it was decided that student cellphones must be turned off and not visible during the school day, and students will not be able to use their phones during class.
High school students will be able to use their phones during lunch, although they will remain off limits for middle and elementary students.
“I have full faith that you can go cold turkey for four hours, get a reward, and then [90 minutes] in the afternoon, then you’re free,” Superintendent Scott Smith said of high schoolers. “You’re young adults. We want to give you every opportunity to recognize the power of the device and to demonstrate your self control.”
Middle school students will not be able to use their phones during lunch. Cellphones are discouraged and shall not be on or used at any time for elementary school students.
“This is where we will start recognizing that elementary-aged children probably shouldn’t have unauthorized access to technology,” said Smith, who added there may be some extenuating circumstances. “A cellphone is a great communication tool, it is also a seriously dangerous device.”
In addition, teachers will not be able to reward students with cellphone usage even after class work is done, or use their own cellphones in the classroom.
Supervisory staff will only be permitted to use school-issued cellphones.
“Consistency, consistency, consistency,” Smith said.
A video message from Scott, emails and signage will be posted in classrooms informing students of the change for the coming school year.
Several states have banned cellphone usage in high schools and nine Maryland counties are either reviewing their policies, limiting their use or banning them in class, such as Calvert recently instituted.
According to current St. Mary’s school board policy, devices “must be kept out of sight and turned off from the beginning of the instructional day … to the end of the instructional day.”
Work groups were held June 13 and June 26 on the matter and thousands of students, staff and parents have responded through surveys.
“People are obviously interested in this hot topic,” Director of Student Services Cheryl Long said.
When asked how often they used their cellphone in school, 32% of middle school students and 70% of high school students said they did every day.
Regarding cellphone usage, 69.4% of students said they were texting, while 49.4% said they used their phones for instructional applications.
“We’re not sure what that means,” Chief of Staff Dale Farrell said. “Does that mean they’re Googling for the answers to something?”
He added that 25% of students said they were using phones for music and videos and that “some of those videos were not of things that they should be taking pictures of.”
Staff and students were overwhelmingly in favor of not allowing cellphones during the school day, and 55.8% of students said they believed cellphones were a distraction during the school day. And a majority of students, staff and parents all agreed there should be restrictions on usage.
“Renewing focus on instruction is really at the heart of [this],” Long said. “We need to be very clear on our messaging about what the plan is and the consequences are.”
The board of education will review consequences for using cellphones during classroom hours at its July 31 meeting.
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