In two weeks, cellphones will be kept off and out of sight during class as Lincoln Public Schools implements its new procedures on phone use that are aimed at curbing phone-created distractions and keeping students off social media during school hours.
The new protocols, which also include the use of a digital hall pass system in high schools, vary by grade level. At elementary schools, if a student has a phone, it must be turned off and kept in the student's backpack during the school day; in middle schools, devices must be powered off and out of sight between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.; and in high schools, students must power off phones and keep them away during class but can use them before and after school, between periods and during lunch.
If a student uses a phone during class, staff will first ask the student to put it away in a storage area in the classroom. If the student does not comply, the phone will be taken to the main office for the rest of the day. If students continue to not comply, they will be removed from the classroom.
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Tested last school year at Lincoln Southwest High School, the protocols worked well, garnering favorable reports from teachers, who saw the phone ban improve the learning environment, and few complaints from students, who largely understood and complied with the rules.
"Experts agree that children and teens need clear-cut rules and limitations when it comes to using digital devices and existing on social media platforms," Superintendent Paul Gausman said in announcing the new rules. "Providing a consistent personal electronic device plan across LPS gives our teachers and administrators the tools that they need and it gives our students a clear understanding of our expectations of them and the consequences of them not following those expectations."
Consistency is, perhaps, the key word in Gausman’s statement — consistency in the application of the protocols in each school and across the district, consistency in support of teachers, who will become cellphone cops, and, importantly, consistency in support of the protocols from parents.
Consistency across the district will eliminate building-by-building phone policies, removing complaints that some schools were more lax in allowing phone use. Consistency in support for teachers from administrators is critical in ensuring the protocols can be fairly implemented, especially in the case of repeated non-compliance.
There will, of course, be parents who believe that their child should be exempted from the rules, which allow for emergency communication with families in school offices. The exemptions should be avoided by the schools and, more broadly, parents need to enforce the need for and value of the new proposals in the education of their children, who, frankly, can live without being attached to their phones for the hours they’re in school.
