(Lake Park)– One area school board is looking at adopting a tougher cell phone policy for students. Harris-Lake Park Superintendent Gary Richardson tells KUOO news the district’s current policy is somewhat vague…
“The discussion revolves around the necessity of students having a cell phone with them all day long, and the value of the social interaction that comes from not having a cell phone in front of them all day long. And that’s not to say our students have a cell phone in front of them 24/7, but certainly there are times when social interaction would be more appropriate than looking at a screen and I think that’s number one. Number two is that it is a disruption to the education environment, especially if they’re not used for some type of classroom activity. It’s just a natural thing to look at your phone, we all do it. We want to have a little bit more, stronger, policy that keeps the phones out of students reach during the course of a class period.”
Richardson says they’re mulling over two possible options presented at a meeting earlier this week by Middle School-High School Principal Greg Hiemstra…
“Mr. Hiemstra is recommending that we use cell phone caddies in each classroom, so students would come in and put them in there at the beginning of each period, grab it on the way out. They would have it during passing times and then at lunch. Then another is you put them in the cell phone caddy at first period and you don’t get them back until 3:15, so. Those are the two options that are in front of the board and the recommendation administratively would be to have the first one.”
Richardson says the board will act on a revised policy at their regular monthly meeting in August.
