Hamilton County school board members are considering requiring students to lock their phones in pouches during the school day.
At Tuesday’s policy committee meeting, board members asked district officials for an estimate on what it would cost to purchase phone pouches that are sealed magnetically for all middle and high school students, as well as just for those who qualify for free or reduced lunch.
In other districts where these types of pouches are in use, students place their phone in a pouch and then touch it to a magnetic locking station that seals the phone inside. At the end of the day, students tap the pouch at the station again to unlock it.
The inquiry comes as the board considers whether to revise its existing cell phone use policy.
Under the policy, students can have phones at school as long as the devices are not seen or heard. Principals, as well as others they designate, can give students permission to use the devices for a class assignment, and each high school can choose whether to allow students to use phones in designated areas during lunch.
“We’ve got an implementation issue,” Superintendent Justin Robertson said. “We have a people issue right now. I don’t think it’s the policy is the problem. … There’s too much variation across the district of how it’s being implemented.”
Some board members raised the idea of having students place their phones in an organizer or basket at the front of the classroom during class time. Officials said some schools have already been doing that successfully.
School board member Ben Daugherty, R-Signal Mountain, said having students put their phones in a designated place during class doesn’t prevent them from using it during the rest of the school day, which means cyberbullying could still happen.
“I think we have an obligation and duty to protect these kids first and foremost and to provide ample opportunity to focus on academics,” he said. “The only way to prevent that is if they don’t have access to it throughout the day. We’re asking for eight hours out of a 24-hour day for these kids to have a reprieve from social media and the onslaught of notifications and text threads and just focus on academics.”
Board Chair Joe Smith, R-Hixson, who has been a driver of the effort to change the cell phone policy, said if students want to have a phone at school, they should have to pay for the pouch. He noted that cheerleaders need to purchase uniforms to participate and students driving to school need to pay for a parking spot.
“We all got so upset here a few weeks ago when our legislators voted for the voucher fund when all their constituents were saying, ‘Don’t vote for that. Don’t vote for that,'” he said in a reference to the recently passed legislation that gives families taxpayer funding to pay for private school tuition.
“Now, everybody’s saying, ‘Board, make these phones go away.’ And we’re not going to listen to them,” he continued. “My goodness. I want those phones put up, and I want a pouch. And I want the person that’s going to carry his phone to buy that pouch.”
If the board is going to require phone pouches, Robertson said, it should consider students in poverty and those who receive free or reduced lunch. Roughly a third of district students are economically disadvantaged, according to state data.
Across the state, other elected officials are also considering measures to limit student cell phone use at school.
On Monday, the Tennessee House passed legislation requiring schools to ban cell phone use during instructional time. It allows teachers to let students use devices for educational purposes and during emergencies or to manage their health. It is scheduled to be voted on by the state senate Thursday.
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.