This year, the CUSD school board has introduced a new cell phone policy. In the years prior, cell phones were generally not allowed to be used in high school classrooms, and at PV the usage of one during class time would be met with a referral to Saturday school. However, with the school year coming to an end, the school board met together and reviewed the policies of the district, one of which regarding the usage of cell phones.
According to Pedro Caldera, the CUSD director of secondary education, the board began to consider changing the policy in order to “protect our students from the social and emotional [distraction] that can be derived from cell phone use”, and to “protect instructional time within schools”.
The new policy aims to achieve this by making cell phones in high school classes not allowed without explicit teacher instruction, and instead of just being issued a Saturday school, students now are met with their phones being taken to administration and placed in a bag, unusable for the rest of the day.
But setting a new policy into motion is only one aspect of the larger phenomena. When it comes to cell phone usage at Pleasant Valley, and managing it, some teachers at PV have concerns or critiques. For example, Mrs. Morrissey, an English teacher here at PV, says that although she hasn’t had to enforce it yet, and that she “understands and agrees with the policy needing a change”, she is also concerned that a student “could have an accident” off campus during lunch, and “be unable to report it or get help”, if their phone had been confiscated.
Many of the concerns from teachers relating to the new policy are shared by students. Haley Coombs, known by her friends as just Rae, says that she likes “being able to check [her phone] every so often if there is an emergency or … when [she has] finished all her work”. Although in her opinion, it “should have stayed the way it was”, she also can “see the improvement that’s been made from it”.
In conclusion, there is clearly a variety of opinions and perspectives on the new phone policy, and going forward only time will tell what the future of cell phone usage might look like in Chico schools.
