A steady procession of vehicles and students arrives at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé before the start of the new school year on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

A steady procession of vehicles and students arrives at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé before the start of the new school year on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)

Opinion: Let’s consider tightening cell phones restrictions in Juneau schools

A recent uptick in student fights on and off campus has Juneau School District administrators looking for answers. It also has raised the issue of cell phone use in schools.

While the two issues are not directly linked, some parents and school officials feel that cell phone use can contribute to and facilitate the conditions leading up to fights between students. National data has shown the negative effects of cellphone use in schools on learning, mental health, cyberbullying and teacher morale.

According to a 2023 Common Sense Media survey, 97% of 11- to 17-year-olds reported using their phones in some capacity during school hours and handling their phones around 13 times during the average school day. Those students used their phones for a median of 43 minutes (ranging from less than one minute to six and a half hours). The median number of pickups was 13 per school day, ranging from less than one to 229. The apps most used were social media (32% of smartphone use during school hours), gaming (17%), and YouTube (26%).

Currently in the U.S., 76% of public schools prohibit non-academic use of cell phones or smartphones during school hours. But that allows for a wide latitude in policy from schools that strictly prohibit these devices in classrooms to schools that allow them, but don’t permit their “inappropriate” use.

The Juneau School District policy is more closely aligned with the latter.

It states in part: “The School Board recognizes that many students possess and use cell phones and other portable electronic devices. These devices serve an important purpose in facilitating communication between the student and his or her family, as well as serving as tools to access electronic information. In the school setting, portable electronic devices are permitted so long as their use is consistent with this policy and does not interfere with the educational process or with safety and security.”

Unfortunately, this policy often puts teachers in the unfair position of monitoring and enforcing a rather vague guideline when they believe that a student’s use of a cell phone is “interfering with the educational process.” This can lead to a policy on phone use that varies from school to school—sometimes even from classroom to classroom—and isn’t always enforced.

My granddaughter attends a public school in the Seattle area and her school district just introduced a Phone-Free School policy in all school buildings. She can keep her phone with her, but is required to place it in Do Not Disturb mode (along with her smartwatch and earbuds) in a magnetically-locked Yondr pouch during the school day. The pouch can be unlocked by tapping it on an unlocking device whenever she leaves the “phone-free zone” at the school. That means she can use her phone at the end of the school day or anytime outside but cannot access it anywhere inside the school building during the class day without permission from a school official.

Yondr pouches are just but one of the many ways that middle and high school administrators are dealing with cell phone use. However, there are a wide variety of nuanced approaches that can be implemented depending on student grade level, budgetary limitations, and parent buy-in.

The ideal solution would be one that is acceptable to administrators, teachers, parents and students. But that just isn’t realistic. Some school districts have found that the greatest pushback on phone restrictions comes from parents who believe that communication with their child should be available at all times. Certainly, exceptions can be made for students who have a documented need for an electronic device, whether for medical reasons or otherwise. But most students don’t require immediate access to phones all day while in school.

The Alaska State Board of Education recently adopted a resolution charging the Department of Education and Early Development with the advancement of a model policy limiting the use of cellular phones and other electronic communication devices during class hours in Alaska’s schools.

The Juneau School Board has also signaled their intent to develop and implement such a policy.

The sooner the better.

• After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for KeyBank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular Opinion Page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.

More in Opinion

Web
Have something to say?

Here’s how to add your voice to the conversation.

Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Our comfort with spectacle became a crisis

If I owned a home in the valley that was damaged by… Continue reading

The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
My Turn: Maybe the news is ‘No new news’ on Canada’s plans for Tulsequah Chief mine cleanup

In 2015, the British Columbia government committed to ending Tulsequah Chief’s pollution… Continue reading

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Letter: Voter fact left out of news

With all the post-election analysis, one fact has escaped much publicity. When… Continue reading

People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
Opinion: Mired in bureaucracy, CBJ long-term flood fix advances at glacial pace

During meetings in Juneau last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Rights for psychiatric patients must have state enforcement

Kim Kovol, commissioner of the state Department of Family and Community Services,… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Small wins make big impacts at Alaska Psychiatric Institute

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API), an 80-bed psychiatric hospital located in Anchorage… Continue reading

The settlement of Sermiligaaq in Greenland (Ray Swi-hymn / CC BY-SA 2.0)
My Turn: Making the Arctic great again

It was just over five years ago, in the summer of 2019,… Continue reading

Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)
My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice… Continue reading

President Donald Trump and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy pose for a photo aboard Air Force One during a stopover at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage in 2019. (Sheila Craighead / White House photo)
Opinion: Dunleavy has the prerequisite incompetence to work for Trump

On Tuesday it appeared that Gov. Mike Dunleavy was going to be… Continue reading

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many Louisiana homes were rebuilt with the living space on the second story, with garage space below, to try to protect the home from future flooding. (Infrogmation of New Orleans via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA)
Misperceptions stand in way of disaster survivors wanting to rebuild safer, more sustainable homes

As Florida and the Southeast begin recovering from 2024’s destructive hurricanes, many… Continue reading

The F/V Liberty, captained by Trenton Clark, fishes the Pacific near Metlakatla on Aug. 20, 2024. (Ash Adams/The New York Times)
My Turn: Charting a course toward seafood independence for Alaska’s vulnerable food systems

As a commercial fisherman based in Sitka and the executive director of… Continue reading