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Escambia, Florida, School Board Discusses Student Phone Policy; Escambia, Alabama, Will Lock Phones In Pouches
June 20, 2024
The school board in Escambia County, Florida is discussing how changes could be made to cell usage in local schools along with a Florida law already in place.
The discussion comes as Los Angeles school board on Tuesday moved to ban cellphones all day on campuses for a half million students in the nation’s second largest district.
Meanwhile, a new cell phone policy has already been adopted in Escambia County, Alabama, banning usage during the high school day. Students will be able to have their phones, but they’ll be locked in pouches.
Details on both Escambia counties are below.
Escambia County, Florida
A Florida law last year prohibits school networks from using social media, and gives teacher discretion to ban cell phone use in their classrooms during classroom time.
“I appreciate the guidelines we currently have in place, but cell phones and earbuds and headphones are a top problem in the classroom,” Escambia County teacher Cheryl Zigler told the school board. “They are a distraction in the classroom. I am not recommending banning them, but in districts where they have been banned, grades went up.”
“We do need a district-wide policy, so every school is doing the same thing,” Zigler added. “There’s a company that sells these awesome pouches that kids can lock up their phone; they get it back at the end of the day. They can carry around their phone, but they can’t open it (the pouch).
Parents need to work with their children on cell phone usage. Parents don’t need to text their kids at school during class,” she added.
“They use their cell phones to cheat; they’ll take pictures of test questions; they’ll text pictures to friends. We’ve got to do something.”
“This is a crisis across America,” District 1 school board member Kevin Adams said.
“School board are not the reason that students have cell phone,” District 5 board member Bill Slayton, nothing that the board did have regulations against cell phones in schools maybe 20 years ago. “But a father that was on the Legislature wanted to be able to get in touch with their child, and the Legislature passed the statute that said that we could not prohibit cell phones in schools. And look what we have come around to.”
“Please bear with us as we make this new rule,” Slayton continued. “It will probably have to be modified many, many times just because it is very difficult nowadays to stop it.”
“I do hate to see a child fail or be suspended because of this,” he said, holding up his phone. “But that is kind of where we are going…bear with us. This is going to take a while.”
Superintendent Keith Leonard said he’s discussed cell phones with students representing the district’s high schools, and they are planning a student-led “unplugged day” next school year.
“Every year, we have tried to give teachers and instructors more power over the cell phones in their classrooms,” District 4 member Patty Hightower said.
Escambia County, Alabama
The Escambia County Board of Education in Alabama has banned student cell phones during the high school day beginning with the upcoming school year.
The district will issue Yondr pouches to each student at the beginning of the school year. When they arrive on campus, they will lock their phones inside the pouch that will be unlocked by the school at the end of the school day. The students will be unable to unlock the pouch containing the phone without a special device, and if they damage the pouch, they will be charged $20. Pouch searches may be conducted during the school day.
The locking policy does not apply to school-issued computers.
“There is no reason that a student should need a cell phone during the regular school day,” the policy states. “In any instance requiring emergency communication with a student, our school will immediately assist the
student, a parent, or other responsible adult with that situation by using a school telephone.”
The policy also states, “instances may occur where administration will unlock pouches for students to call home such as severe weather, unplanned early release, etc.”
Violations can lead to in or out of school suspensions or even alternative school for 15 days following the sixth offense.
To read the Escambia County, Alabama, policy, click here (pdf).
Pictured: Escambia County (FL) School Board member Bill Slayton hold up his phone during a board meeting this week. NorthEscambia.com image, click to enlarge.
Comments
24 Responses to “Escambia, Florida, School Board Discusses Student Phone Policy; Escambia, Alabama, Will Lock Phones In Pouches”
I think that instead of spending money on locked pouches they should make punishments more severe
There is a lot that could go wrong with this like god forbid there is a school shooting and kids want to text their parents potentially one last time.
My daughter has really bad periods and it effects her ability to do simple things and multiple times she has been at school and needed to call me to come get her but the nurses would refuse to call me and tell her to go back to class. She has even gone to the office but they still wouldn’t call me so she had to use her phone and text me herself.
Cellphones have absolutely no place in the classroom period.
Why is this type of “action” being taken regarding cellphone usage in schools instead of taking real action against all of the gun violence and school shootings happening all over our country. It’s disheartening that many parents send their children off to school with the fear of a school shooting occurring. It’s shameful that our representatives aren’t willing to do more for our children and take some real actions for their safety. A few years ago a local high school I attended had multiple code reds in which students had brought firearms to school. Multiple. In the same school year. I recall 4 that I am aware of and 3 of those instances were students claiming they needed to “protect themselves” and 1 incident where a student had thoughts of opening his firearm into a very full cafeteria.There were no shootings and no one was hurt but why has it become normalized for children to bring firearms to school. It should not be normalized. We need real action now.
@Alex
Students used to learn without the internet. They used to learn without air conditioning. They used to learn without electricity.
Times change, society advances, technology improves. Instead of trying to stifle change, maybe it’s time we learned to embrace it and adapt to it.
How did anyone survive high school w/o a cell phone in the past, we did just fine. Make them lock them in their locker.
While I am fine with this BUT let’s first put $ effort into metal detectors for all MS and HS students instead of “random selection.” I’d rather have my child’s safety assured before spending $ for locked cell phone pouches.
Most everyone wanted tech in their lives until tech advanced and became smarter than the users/system… now the push is on!!! Careful what you wish/ask for
Corporal punishment for cellphones?
Punishment for all other offenses of greater magnitude would then range from expulsion to the death penalty. Maybe water torture can get woven in between.
How ridiculous.
JTV has the precise answer! So implement corporal punishment back in schools. When the schools took that away,all heck has broken loose since. There are no consequences for bad behavior no more.And that’s the BOTTOM line!!!!
Prisons in Florida are allowed to request a permit to use cellphone jammers. Maybe legislation needs to be drafted that allows schools to request a jammer permit…
Escambia AL resident. makes a very strong point regarding smart watches!
They are basically an extension of the phone in many of the functions and are connected/synchronous to a large degree.
They gotta do something about smartwatches too. Smartwatches can do many of the same functions as a smartphone. If they don’t address this as well, then the whole thing is an exercise in futility.
If we can’t stop students from bringing their cell phones to ……..class.. Then they should have to remain in their backpacks… They should not be seen nor heard during class.
This’ll never happen, Parents are the problem. They are the people allowing their sweet innocent offspring to bring them in the first place.
@tax payer
Jamming is federally illegal and explicitly prohibited by the FCC. That’s a good way to end up in federal prison with a felony conviction. Also, POTS infrastructure is being slowly phased out and will be too expensive to maintain. Best thing to do is just simply prohibit the use of phones during class via handbook policy and have appropriate repercussions for violations.
As a parent of an Escambia County Florida student, I like the idea of locked phone pouches for our kids here also. My child has a cellphone and I can control usage at home but not during class at school. It is a big distraction to his learning if he is allowed to use it during class. It is not fair to the teachers to have to control phones in the classroom as the kids resent and complain about this teacher. ALL teachers should limit the phones and no earbuds in every class. We need to take every step we can to ensure that our kids get a quality education!
I have been retired from teaching in Escambia County Public Schools for 20 years now but realized that cell phones usage in the classroom was going to be a major detriment to academic development…not sure if waiting for state legislators to pass laws is the answer…and whatever rules/ regulations/ laws passed should be enforced universally…that’s the major challenge. GOOD LUCK!
@tax payer
Absolutely not.
Cell phone jammers are illegal. If they did set up a jammer in a school, it could disrupt communications for people living near the school. In the event of an emergency (like God forbid, a school shooting) it could severely limit the ability of students/staff to contact emergency services. Many students use cell phones as medical equipment (for example, to measure blood sugar).
And most significantly? Even if we did set up a cell phone jammer, kids would STILL be able to access the internet as long as they were able to connect to wifi.
No offense intended, but in the future? It might be a good idea to avoid proposing solutions until you understand the issue.
Do like in the movies set up a cell jammer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is no reason that a student should need a cell phone during the regular school day,”
If there is an emergency then do like in the old days call the student to the office and use a land line.
If you are caught using a cell phone during class the you get a ZERO for the day, a couple of those and you FAIL the class.
My grandson told me that the kids google the answers to text questions.
Focus more on keeping guns and shooters out of school, then we’ll work on phones. Also, earbuds have been used discreetly in class since the 90’s before smartphones phones.
If all classroom teachers don’t enforce policy, and add school administrators won’t process violation referrals, then any board policy dreamt-up is dead before implementation. Been there, done that!
Since the Florida Legislature loves to preempt local government decisions, why not wait for the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Legislature to come up with statewide solutions and policy first based on data and findings? The school board should table this, go to the Legislature through lobby groups, and let this be “solved” at the state level first.
There are all kinds of problems with local school district boards attempting to make decisions when it comes to this issue. AI, emergency communications, photography/videography, appropriate and inappropriate use of apps, information searching, sports, on and on. This is way beyond the capabilities of local staff and boards when it comes to rule making.
And in NO WAY should teachers be making individual decisions classroom to classroom. When the Legislature passes the buck to the teachers on such a hot topic, it sets the teachers up for conflict with students, parents, administrators, school superintendents and boards, and the Department of Education. Ultimately, their career could be on the line. Not good.
It’s a statewide problem, therefore it should receive statewide Legislative attention, rather than locally attempting Hail Mary passes as to what needs to be done.
Who told children they could bring their phones to school to begin with? Stopping a habit before it starts is the solution. No phone use kids. Generations of us managed to get a good education without a phone in hand. Obviously they are a great distraction and a way to ignore the teachers.
Escambia Co. Alabama has taken a step in the right direction on cell phone use in the classroom. Hopefully others will follow. Administration and teachers will have to be on the same page and the new policy and not make excuses to break the rules.