SEQUIM — To help guide policy decisions around cell phones in the Sequim School District, leaders plan to ask families and staff this summer via a survey to share their thoughts on technology, namely cell phones, their impact on students and best steps forward.
Sequim Schools Superintendent Regan Nickels said the survey likely will go out to the community in early June.
Cellphone use in schools remains a hot topic as state legislators have proposed laws to require school districts to set policies for students’ use.
This year, Senate Bill 5346 and House Bill 1122 were introduced but remained in committee.
“Research is showing us the impact (of cellphones) is significant,” Nickels said at the April 14 school board meeting.
However, feedback from teachers is there’s a reticence from students to have their phones taken away, she said.
“There’s a wide range of possibilities to solve this, and no matter what, somebody is going to be mad,” student liaison Lincoln Forrest said.
He doesn’t think a total ban would work.
“I think it’s possible to restrict it to a high capacity, but you’ll never fully be without a cellphone,” Forrest said.
A total ban bothers board director Larry Jeffryes, who said enforcement “could get extreme.”
“I think there’s a lot to look at,” he said. “I agree a total ban would be an imposition on staff to enforce it and a challenge for students to overcome it.”
Board director Maren Halvorsen said she’s concerned for teachers having to constantly enforce phones in the classroom, too.
Policy
Currently, the school district has policy 3245, commonly known as “Off and Away,” that addresses phones, and 2022/2022P that addresses electronic resources and internet safety.
Policy 2022P states, “school staff will retain the final authority in deciding when and how students may use personal electronic devices on school grounds and during the school day.”
According to 3245, “telecommunication devices will be turned on and operated only before and after the regular school day and during the student’s lunch break, unless an emergency situation exists that involves imminent physical danger or a school administrator authorizes the student to use the device.”
Students also cannot use a phone (or other telecommunication devices) that “poses a threat to academic integrity, disrupts the learning environment, or violates the privacy rights of others.”
During a board discussion last September, Nickels said “Off and Away” works in many situations, but some research shows that even having the device on a student — even if it’s turned off — can be a distraction.
“Some environments are more difficult than others,” she said. “Even that psychological tug to that (turned off) device is significant. There’s a lot to unpack.”
Halvorsen prompted the district to do a survey of its own as she was concerned it would be a long time before the state conducts and publishes results from an investigation.
“I feel like this is an urgent issue for learning in the classroom,” she said.
Jeffryes said the “Off and Away” policy makes sense for older grades but feels there likely would be differences between cell phone/screen time restrictions between elementary and upper grades.
Board chairman Eric Pickens said his views have changed on cell phones as he used to feel it should be on a classroom-by-classroom basis, but he’s hearing many teachers want a district policy “so it’s not them having to be the bad guys, so to speak.”
He said, with any policy, there will be nuances with violations.
At a recent lunch break at Sequim High School, some students using cellphones were split on their support for different levels of phone restrictions.
Sophomore Lily MacDonald said she thinks cellphone restrictions are a good idea.
“When I get bored, I feel automatically locked into my phone,” she said.
Fellow sophomore Dale Tinker was indifferent, saying he doesn’t bring his phone to school that much.
Sebastian Greimes, a freshman, thinks a complete ban would “be more harmful than helpful” as some students need to talk to their parents or their place of employment, but he feels it could be helpful if phones were restricted to certain times and places.
Feedback
Nickels said formal complaints are “once in a while” at the secondary level with middle and high school staff sharing consistent concerns.
A new concern at the elementary level, she said, is smart watches going off even with phones put away.
Nickels said Sequim’s issues are typical of other districts and do not appear to rise to a higher level of concern than other school communities.
“This effort is about a mix: starting the process to provide resources to students to better manage their tech and also recognizing the concerns of exposure to high levels of cellphone distraction and social media influences,” she said.
At the April 14 meeting, Nickels said technology addiction is another concern as “not every student manages themselves and their phone in the same way” nor has the same level of self-management skills.
“Survey data will assist us in finding the points we need to discuss,” Nickels wrote via email.
“Behavior management is a challenge, and this device use and distraction may be a factor especially in middle and high school.
“We don’t want to assume but explore the issue with staff, students and families.”
She told board directors that doing a survey “is a critical path for us.”
In the coming month, the district plans to invite students and families to participate in a two-book study: “Parenting in the Screen Age: A Guide for Calm Conversations” and “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.”
Find more about the study here.
Nickels said the district plans to partner with the North Olympic Library System to have copies available to check out, and provide information on less expensive used copies.
For more information about Sequim School District, visit sequimschools.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com. Nash has family employed and enrolled in Sequim School District.
