No Phone Zone: With the rise in changes of phone policies in schools across the country, SMSD will be updating their phone policy

The Shawnee Mission School District recently formed the Cycle II Steering Committee. It consists of Superintendent Michelle Hubbard, board members, parents, students and staff members from across the district. The Strategy 4 team of the committee will review and create a policy concerning the use of personal devices in schools, starting this quarter.

They oversee Strategy 4.1.3 — a new strategy implemented this school year in order to, “Create a developmental guide related to age-appropriate usage of technology (to include the use of personal devices) with consideration for students who may require individualized support,” according to the Cycle II strategic plan implementation schedule.

School districts across the country have placed partial or full bans on phone usage in schools, with eight states having already enacted legislation of partial or full restrictions on phone usage during school hours, according to the Washington Post. In Kansas, the Blue Valley and Olathe School Districts have also placed partial bans — where devices must be put away during instructional time.

According to Kansas Representative Stephanie Clayton, the state will leave these decisions to school boards.

“A lot of our general philosophy is that this isn’t so much a legislative decision as it should be a decision that is made by the local school district,” Clayton said.

The subject of phone policies has been brought up before during public comment but this is the first time it has been suggested within the school board. With these recent nationwide changes and statistics against having phones in schools, this issue was brought to the school board’s attention by at-large board member David Westbrook at the June 10 board meeting. 

Westbrook proposed a policy where students lock their phones away at the start of school and are only able to access them after school. He believes that implementing a policy where students can access devices is difficult for teachers to enforce.

“What I think now needs to be done is to take a look at what would be the most sensible way to execute a policy like this,” Westbrook said. “I frankly think that more kids and more parents will welcome it than resist it.”

On the other hand, students believe that a phone ban should not be implemented. In an Instagram poll of 347 people, 94% believe that a phone ban is not necessary, the majority of respondents being students.

Westbrook believes, however, that if students and parents were to look at the statistics surrounding phone usage in schools, they’d change their minds.

Over 50% of teenagers in the US spend an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes a day on phones, according to Cosmo Technology. And over half of kids get 237 notifications a day, 23% of these are during school hours, according to Common Sense Media.

Last year, a phone ban was enacted at Indian Hills Middle School, where students were required to leave their phones in their lockers during the school day. 

Associate Principal Tara Mahoney, who just transitioned from Indian Hills to East, noticed that students were more engaged and had fewer distractions. However, she doesn’t notice a big difference in behavior of students at Indian Hills compared to East.

“At Indian Hills, you could have access during passing period, you had access at lunch, so that’s really where I’ve seen [phones] in the hallways and during lunch,” Mahoney said. “Here, it really doesn’t look a whole lot different.”

Kim Whitman, the founder of the Phone Free Schools Movement — a national organization advocating to remove phones from schools — and a SMSD parent, agrees with Westbrook that phones harm students’ learning and mental health.

“If we can give youth seven hours a day where they’re free from the pressures and harms of social media, that would alleviate some of the harms creating mental health issues,” Whitman said.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory, spending over three hours a day on social media doubles the risk of mental health issues and worsens symptoms of anxiety and depression.

However, parents and students also argue that phones are important for students to have in case of an emergency.

Junior Tucker Ward believes that students should have a way to contact their parents and that students should be able to handle having phones during class.

“I’m a junior now, and I feel like I can handle, mediating how much I look at my phone and doing my work,” Ward said. “When you’re in high school, you’re on your way to be an adult and if you can’t have that much self-control to not constantly be looking at your phone, then that’s your problem.”

According to the SMSD School Board president Mary Sinclair, the next steps in the process to reach a new policy include framing the policy, gathering community input and then collecting data.

“The district leadership team will then review and discuss results and bring a recommendation to [the] board of education,” Sinclair said in an email.