Governor Hochul’s long awaited cellphone ban has made it into the state budget, which now means schools must come up with their own plans on how they will enforce the policy.
To be in compliance with this policy any and all smart devices throughout the entire school day, including non-instructional time.
Williamsville North Principal Andrew Bowen presented the district's version of a proposed cellphone ban before the board last night. Despite the mandate from the state forcing schools into making these polices, Bowen believes a cellphone ban will be beneficial to students. Telling the board “when you know better you should do better”
"So back in the day, Smoking or non smoking, right? We learned that the there's negative effects of second hand smoking, and eventually in our culture and our societies, we've eliminated smoking in restaurants. So I would like them to make an argument that we are in the in the start of a cultural shift about using our cellphones."
The policy will require elementary students to have their device in their backpack and turned off from the time they enter the building until they exit the building. For middle and high school students the device has to be in their locker for the entire school day.
The punishment for not complying with the policy would be device confiscation for the remainder of the school day and a parent notification.
While the board praised the work that went into making the policy there were still questions from some members about how realistic enforcing a cellphone ban would be.
"This is putting a ton on the teachers plate. And how that is going to work in the classroom I can only imagine," said Stuart Bulan.
"Let's say kids keep going to their lockers, is there a plan for that? As a teacher are we going have to be watching the hallway?" said Michael Buscaglia.
Bowen acknowledged with any plan that was made kids would always find a way around it.
A 30 day comment period is now open for stakeholders to express concerns or make suggestions to the policy. The district must accept a policy by August 1st.
