School board proposes limits to student cell phone use

Robert Perea, The Fernley Reporter

The Lyon County School Board at its Oct. 22 meeting proposed policy revisions that would limit the use of cell phones and other electronic devices by students during the school day.

The revisions to the district’s Policy EDBB were proposed as a first reading, which means they will come back before the board at its next meeting for either final approval or further revisions.

Deputy superintendent Dawn Huckaby said the proposed revisions were made after the district reviewed the results of a parent/guardian survey on the use of cell phones at school.

The district initiated the survey to get parental feedback on the level of concern about how much cell phones affect student focus and academic performance during school.

Of the 1,588 responses, 716, or 44.9 percent were not concerned, while 408, or 25.6 were very concerned and 388, or 24.3 percent, were concerned. 82 respondents had no opinion.

On the questions of whether parents believed limiting cell phone access school-wide would positively affect their child’s social interactions and communications skills, 616, or 38.8 percent, strongly agreed, and 292, or 22.3 percent, agreed, 354 were neutral, 186 disagreed and 140 strongly disagreed.

To the questions of whether parents supported some level of cell phone limitation during the school day, 1,594 responses were received, with 1,310, or 82.2 percent, marking yes and 284, or 17.8 percent saying no.

The 1,310 parents who said yes to Question 3 were asked what level of limitation they would support, and 305, or 46.7 percent of respondents, said from school start time until dismissal, while 248, or 53.3 percent, said during instructional time only.

Based on those responses, the proposal presented to the board for consideration was to limit the use of cell phones during instructional time, which was defined as from the school start time until dismissal from kindergarten through eighth grade, and time in class or during class periods in high school.

Trustee Darin Farr, who has worked as a substitute teacher within the district, said many times students did not know if someone was picking them up after school, and asked whether there could be a provision included that allowed a teacher to grant a student permission to make a call in such instances.

Huckaby said the policy already includes a provision that allows students to use their phones with the permission of the teacher or site administrator.

The current policy also states that with the prior approval of the site administrator, teachers can allow students to use their phones or other devices in support of curriculum learning, but that if devices are used regularly as part of instruction, written permission from parents is required due to the expense it may incur from data charges.

The policy also includes provisions allowing cell phone use in case of emergency.

Trustee Tom Hendrix argued that the policy places too much of a burden on teachers to police cell phone use.

“A better solution would be like Carson to take the phone and put it in a pouch during the day,” he said.

The Trustees voted 6-1 in favor of the policy, with Hendrix opposed. It will need to be either passed as a second reading, or amended and brought back for a third reading in order to be approved.