DALTON, Mass. — The Central Berkshire Regional School District began its discussion on revising its cell phone policy to make it more stringent during its School Committee meeting last week. 

 

The goal of the policy change is to help students be more engaged in school and to prevent students from taking videos of their peers without permission and spreading them around.  

 

Superintendent Leslie Blake-Davis presented the discussion to the committee by inquiring whether the best path would be to prohibit cell phone use all day or to allow use during students' lunch period. 

 

Many districts in the surrounding areas have started this discussion because of the possible grant opportunities that would come from it in the future, Assistant Superintendent Michael Henault said. 

 

Like other surrounding school districts, Central Berkshire is considering utilizing Yondr pouches for students to secure their phone and smartwatches. 

 

Chicopee schools and McCann Technical School in North Adams have enacted the use of Yondr magnetic lock pouches and have data that Central Berkshire can learn from when revising its cell phone policy. The Pittsfield Public Schools have also mulled the idea of the locked pouches and will be discussing changes in its cell-phone policy on Wednesday. 

 

When implementing a more stringent cell-phone policy like requiring students to place their phones in their locker, districts have run into the issue on how to manage it, Henault said. 

 

One pushback that many parents have when it comes to stricter phone policies is not being able to reach their children in an emergency, he said. 

 

The district would have information sessions for parents and students to help ease any concerns they have about implementing Yondr pouches, he said. 

 

"These parents of the kids are addicted to the phones and they're from the generation that they're the ones who first had the phone so they can't picture not having their phone so they can't picture it for their kids. They need to see this," one School Committee member said. 

 

A representative from Yondr will attend the next committee meeting to answer any questions. 

 

The districts are adapting to a cultural shift that is happening, said school officials said. "We can't maybe necessarily stop the cultural shift but I think we should focus on the impact to learning," said one committee member. 

 

Other members said it is important to look into how it will affect academic and social emotional learning prior to making any changes. Those issues could be mental health concerns like anxiety if cell phones are banned all day or students being distracted worrying about what they're missing online. 

 

School Committee member Art Alpert said based on conversations he's had with his son, a teacher, it seems cell phones have turned students into "zombies."