Westport parents spoke out on May 6 at the Board of Education (BOE)’s Community Conversation discussing the potential districtwide cellphone ban. The discussion was held in the Coleytown Middle School auditorium and ran from 7:30-9 p.m. The majority of speakers were in favor of a complete bell-to-bell ban of cellphones at Staples High School as Superintendent Thomas Scarice and members of the BOE listened.
Westport educator and former Representative Town Meeting (RTM) moderator Velma Heller moderated the discussion and provided the two prompts that the conversation focused on: whether or not they support a bell-to-bell cellphone ban at Staples High School and if a ban is put into place, how should the implementation of it work.
At the discussion, leaders and ambassadors to the Westport chapter of the group OK to Delay were among the parents who spoke in support of the phone ban. OK to Delay’s mission is to unite parents in protecting young teenagers from the negative impacts of cellphone and social media usage. They also advocate for parents to wait until after middle school to provide their children with cellphones.
“We were encouraged to see so much support for the Staples phone ban and to hear so many civil, thoughtful conversations around the issue,” OK to Delay Westport wrote in a statement to Inklings. “[…] It’s clear that our community values respectful dialogue, and that our administration and school board are taking this seriously and want to make sure all community members have a voice. We’re hopeful that a phone-free school environment will become a reality—one that helps students focus more on learning and social interactions, with fewer distractions and more meaningful real life experiences.”
At the discussion, Staples math teacher Margaret Gomez expressed support for the bell-to-bell ban and shared some of the difficulties she experiences when enforcing the current phone policy.
“The time we spend taking away their phones is enormous, and they still fight us,” Gomez said.
On May 15, Scarice will formally present his report to the BOE requesting that a directive “prohibiting student use of personal cellular telephones, smartphones, and similar electronic devices during the school day in all district schools” be put in place starting July 1, according to an email sent out on Monday to the Westport community. The BOE would then vote on whether or not to approve of the ban either on May 15 or June 5.
“If approved, the administration will develop an operational plan for implementation and determine whether additional funding is needed,” Scarice wrote. “A targeted volunteer group of faculty, students, administrators, and parents will be invited to review the plan before it goes into effect.”
Scarice’s message also provided the preliminary results from the district survey conducted by Hanover Research that stated 70% of district faculty strongly support or somewhat support the phone-free initiative, 59% of parents strongly support it and only 7% of students do. The final report of the survey will be available later this week.
“Ideally, the plan would go into effect the first day of the 25-26 school year,” Scarice wrote, “but I am not opposed to delaying a month or two if that increases the likelihood of success.”
