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The Washington Post
Should children
get to have cellphones in elementary school?
By Donna St. George
December 7
The youngest children in Montgomery County’s public schools could soon
be allowed to bring cell phones and other electronic devices to campus
under newly proposed rules.
Students would not be able to use the devices during the school day in
elementary schools unless a teacher permits them as part of classroom
instruction, but students could use phones and tablets after dismissal
or on school buses if the rules pass.
“The reality is, they are in our elementaries now,” said Patricia
O’Neill, a county school board member who noted that cellphones are
“ubiquitous” in middle schools and high schools. She said the proposed
change would largely focus on “keeping up with the times.”
Part of a broader update to the district’s regulations on personal
mobile devices, the change could take effect as soon as next school
year. School board members discussed the change at a recent committee
meeting, but it requires Superintendent Jack Smith’s approval.
It comes as another sign of technology’s advance in the nation’s K-12
schools, where parents’ interest is often a driving factor for
districts to allow elementary school students to carry cellphones, said
Ann Flynn, director of education technology at the National School
Boards Association. Many parents want to stay in touch with children
for safety or logistical reasons, she said.
“It’s definitely a trend we’re seeing at younger levels — being allowed
to bring cellphones on campus,” she said.
Students in Loudoun County elementary schools are allowed to bring
cellphones but can use them only in emergencies. In Arlington and the
District, cellphone policies are up to individual schools; Fairfax
County’s rules about cellphone use vary by school, but a spokesman said
he was not aware of any ban on having them on school property during
the school day. Prince George’s County permits portable electronic
devices across grades, with rules about their use.
Discussion about revising the rule in Montgomery — which would end a
ban on students taking cellphones to elementary school — has drawn some
skepticism.
Lisa Cline, a PTA leader in Gaithersburg, said current practices are
sufficient, allowing families to seek a waiver if a child needs to
bring a cellphone to school. She said she has yet to hear any evidence
that would support the change and worries about the effect cellphones
could have on elementary school culture.
“To expect a child to turn it off — and not touch it when it’s in his
backpack — is a lot to ask for a 7-year-old,” said Cline, who wrote a
letter to district officials. Her subject line: “Cell phones for ES
kids? Seriously?”
Paul Geller, president of the countywide council of PTAs, said he has
heard parents voice concerns that cellphones could be a distraction in
the classroom or a burden for teachers. Some also worry that allowing
cellphones could intensify the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Geller said some parents might appreciate their children having
cellphones when they walk home alone or take buses long distances.
Others say cellphones, when used as part of a teacher’s lesson plan,
might help meet the district’s technology needs, he said.
“My hope is that they’re going to allow some public comment about it,”
Geller said.
Schools spokesman Derek Turner said the district does not expect a
public-comment process because the matter is considered a regulatory
change. The district had meetings with groups of students, teachers,
principals and parents as officials developed the changes, he said. “We
will still connect with a few more groups to make sure there is
buy-in,” Turner said.
Catherine Carpela, who has taught first-grade and third-grade classes
at Weller Road Elementary School in Silver Spring, said she doesn’t
support the concept, which she believes could add to the many
responsibilities teachers already bear.
“I don’t want to spend my time monitoring inappropriate cellphone usage
when I could be using that time for instruction,” she said, questioning
how devices would be secured, given that young students stow their
belongings in cubbies or backpacks, not lockers.
School district administrators presented the change at a board
committee meeting just before Thanksgiving as part of proposed
revisions to the district’s regulation on personal mobile devices,
which include phones, tablets and laptops.
The new regulation would include a number of rules about appropriate
use and a requirement that students using their own devices at school
access the Internet through the district’s network, not private
cellular providers, to limit exposure to potentially harmful sites.
It would continue to allow high school students to use mobile devices
during lunch. School board member Rebecca Smondrowski suggested
extending lunchtime use to middle-schoolers, as well.
Smondrowski said in an interview that the regulatory change does not
aim to promote cellphones in elementary schools but recognizes their
presence and provides guidance for their use. There also could be
benefits for instruction at some point, she said.
“More and more, as we’re moving into a digital time and digital
instruction is becoming greater and greater, this allows teachers to
take advantage of resources when possible,” she said.
Sherwin Collette, the district’s chief technology officer, said the
update would mesh with a broader goal — allowing students to use their
own devices to augment other technology used for classroom instruction.
“There is a benefit to the district as well,” he said at the committee
meeting.
Collette said district staff compared Montgomery with other school
systems as they considered amending the regulation and underscored that
cellphones already are coming into elementary schools.
“Schools work with their students and families around the ground rules
about that, and they deal with issues of discipline that arise when one
is stolen or comes out of the backpack when it shouldn’t,” he said.
“Parents understand that the school system’s not responsible for any
damage to them.”
Amanda Lenhart, a researcher who studies teenagers and technology,
noted that one recent study found that, on average, U.S. children get
their first cellphones when they are about 10, an age when many
children are in elementary school.
“I think parents wrestle with this a lot: What is the right age to give
a child a cellphone?” she said.
Sarah Kessler, a mother of two in Boyds, said that in her community,
students tend to get cellphones just after elementary school. She
opposes the idea of using cellphones in class during the school day: “I
don’t see how this policy benefits students as a whole when so few
elementary school students own cellphones.”
Read this and more at The Washington Post
Photo: Teensafe
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