Despite misgivings from the school board and parents, the Monroe County Community School Corporation board adopted a new cellphone policy to align with the statewide school cellphone ban. The vote was 5-1.
  
Senate Enrolled Act 78, which passed earlier this year, does not allow students to access personal wireless devices, such as phones, smartwatches and tablets, during the school day. Devices need to be left at home or stored in an inaccessible place during the day.

The corporation’s new policy states phones must be stored in an administration identified and approved building location, powered off and inaccessible during the school day. Students may be allowed to use phones before and after the school day, on a school bus at the driver’s discretion, on a board-approved vehicle, during after-school activities and at school-related functions. 

Students cannot use the devices on school property or at a school-sponsored activity to access or view websites that are blocked to students at school. 

Read more: ‘It’s not helping them’: Parents want more restrictions in place for iPad use in schools 

Alexis Harmon, MCCSC Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, said the corporation gathered 424 survey responses from parents, students and staff on how to enact the policy. About 82 percent said they preferred a storage approach. Options for storage include lockers, classroom pouches or backpacks. 

Other key themes that arose were locker/storage logistics, consistency across schools and safety and emergencies. 

Board member April Hennessey said while she understands cellphones are a problem in the classroom, she thinks the state’s school cellphone law is an overreach. She’s especially worried about inconsistent application of the policy and storing the devices in different ways across different schools within the corporation.  

“That will inevitably lead to different kinds of access, and then potentially greater or less disciplinary action around those phones,” she said, “and so I think one of my primary concerns is how this policy is going to lead potentially to inequitable disciplinary response.” 

Harmon assured that there will be a consistent storage location within elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. There will be training for principals and teachers on policy administration. Superintendent Markay Winston said the corporation will also work to collect data on disciplinary action.

Exceptions in the policy allowing students access to their personal wireless device include an “appropriate time” during an emergency; managing a medical condition as part of an order from a licensed healthcare provider; and for language translation when no school-managed device is available. 

Students may also access their personal devices as part of an individual education plan or if using an “unobtrusive audio recording device” for notetaking or learning assistance if only spoken word audio is captured.  

The device cannot capture, store or transmit images, and must be visible to the teacher when in use.

Read more: MCCSC consolidates early learning centers, will now serve more kids 

Susan Ellenwood, who has two kids attending MCCSC schools, said it’s crucial to contact her kids during an emergency and is worried about how the new state cellphone ban might hinder that. She cited the specific concern of a school shooting. 

“We get a lot of these texts, some of them are false alarms, some of them are drills,” she said. “At any rate, the first thing many of us do is contact our kids, check in, make sure that they're okay, and I would like to be able to continue doing that.” 

The policy states that the best way for parents and guardians to get in touch with their kid during the school day is by calling the school office. Harmon said she’s working on how kids can access their devices during an emergency if they happen to be in lockers. 

Board members Erin Cooperman and Aja Jester said they voted in favor of the policy mostly to stay in compliance with the state law. 

Hennessey was the only board member to vote against the policy. She noted the cost at a time of state budget cuts to education. 

Such mandates, she said, “cost us time, they cost us dollars. Every single bit of this is a drain on our people time, our administrative time … I just think about the amount of time that will now be spent on something pretty frivolous and stupid.”  

The next board meeting is on Tuesday, July 28.