Pinellas County schools’ sensible policy on cellphones in classrooms | Editorial
Cellphones are a wonderful innovation — but they’re a big distraction in the classroom. That’s why Tampa Bay area school districts need clear, sensible rules governing when students may use them. The Pinellas County School District is advancing a thoughtful policy that other districts should consider for the upcoming school year.
The proposal, by Pinellas Superintendent Kevin Hendrick, would require students in kindergarten through eighth grade to keep their phones and other electronic devices silenced and tucked away from the first bell to the last, unless a teacher gives permission. High school students would be allowed to use their devices during lunch and between classes. The rules would replace the current policy, which discourages phones in schools but leaves the guidelines to individual principals.
Hendrick’s proposed policy is simple, age-appropriate and easy to enforce. It provides all students with phone access before and after the school day, while providing exceptions to the phone ban during emergencies, in special cases involving a student’s health or when authorized by a teacher for educational uses.
The proposed change comes in the wake of a new state law that allows school districts to restrict phones in classrooms. That movement has gathered steam nationwide in recent years as students, parents and educators have tried to balance the ubiquity of cellphones in American life with the need to maintain discipline in a learning environment.
While cellphones make it easy for parents and children to stay in touch, the devices and social media apps are distracting. Many also blame cellphones as ready tools for students to bully their classmates, record and share fights and invade the privacy of others.
Nobody is turning back the clock on cellphones. Indeed, Pinellas’ proposal recognizes that students in all grades carry phones, and that exceptions in some cases are reasonable, even in the earliest grades. But it rightly places the learning environment of the entire classroom ahead of the smartphone habits of a single child. The measure also recognizes that older students deserve more leeway; many high school students drive, hold afternoon jobs or participate in off-campus activities. Allowing them more regular access strikes the right balance for that age group.
This policy is easy for students, parents and teachers to understand, and applying it uniformly across the district should improve the chance that violators would be treated equally from school to school. The change would remind students and parents alike that attending school comes with boundaries. Ideally, the rule would become self-enforcing over time as putting away the phone becomes the norm.
Pinellas School Board members unanimously backed the proposal Tuesday, setting the stage for a vote in June to formally adopt the policy. The Pasco and Hillsborough school districts, which will consider their own proposals in the coming weeks, should adopt the Pinellas model. It is a meaningful approach for shifting students’ attention away from screen time to class time.
Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news.
