School district explains phone pouches at parents’ meeting

Carson City School District administrators assessed common themes from parents’ questions and frustrations about the cell phone pouch policy and clarified the initiative in a meeting Tuesday at Carson High School.

More than 100 families, including students, parents and district staff members, attended to ask about the new policy announced Aug. 6 by CCSD officials requiring middle and high school students to place their phones in locking pouches as school starts Monday. Parents expressed worries about safety, communication and their children’s medical needs in case of an emergency or continued academic engagement during independent worktime.

Principal Dan Carstens said the Yondr pouches were selected to minimize distraction by locking phones and smart technology devices during school hours and will be kept with the students until the end of the day. He described a study by another school that tracked the frequency of phone notifications each time an incoming phone, text or social notification rang or buzzed. The count was high, he showed on a slide.

“We need to up our game and make sure our students want to be there (at school),” he said. “The other thing is when we make a policy or practice change to try to get everyone on the same page, sometimes it’s difficult without a tool to make it happen, and so this is our tool to make this happen. It’s our goal to engage kids, but also to address some of the behaviors during passing time.”

CHS Vice Principal Rodney Wade said the point of the pouches is to refocus and improve engagement in the classroom. They previously have been used with success at concerts and other social gatherings.

“Everybody is so caught up in their screen that they’re not caught up in the moment,” Wade said.

Some parents disagreed with removing students’ access to phones in case of an emergency such as the May 3 lockdown in which Carson City Sheriff’s deputies investigated the campus for a reported threat of an unsubstantiated weapon sighting. Parents on Tuesday said they felt uncomfortable with the school’s communication process, to which Carstens said officials are looking at ways to improve its response. He said the CCSD has practiced multiple drills since then, including a district-wide active shooter drill in June. The school also has assigned two staff members, Vice Principal Cheryl Macy and teacher on special assignment Brenda Ramirez, as primary and secondary contacts, to send out first communications through ParentSquare in an emergency, Carstens said.

Messages will be coordinated with district spokesman Dan Davis, and once safety is confirmed, students will be allowed to access their phones.

“Every single classroom will have an unlocking station (for the pouches),” Carstens said. “We want to make sure we have the correct information going out. Once we get the kids settled, we will send message to parents’ phones, they can say, ‘I’m in lockdown, yes, I’m safe, as soon as I have more information, I will let you know what’s going on.’ Then we put the phones away.”

For students with medical needs, pouches with Velcro will be available and staff members likely would meet with them and family members to talk about acceptable use on an individual basis, Carstens said.

Discussions and solutions on cell phone use and policy creation are percolating among other Nevada school districts and across the nation. On Tuesday, the Washoe County School Board during its meeting considered a partial or full ban on student phone use on campus. Clark County School District already required a similar move to have students place their phones in non-locking, signal-blocking pouches that would be made available to students in case of an emergency. In Clark, pouches are optional for students younger than sixth grade.

Carson High junior Eleanor Woodrum said she supported the intent of the policy but said she did not realize the lack of communication or notice about the policy itself until now. Woodrum said she and some of her peers had been informed earlier this spring this would be impacting students this school year.

“Kids can be distracted by something they’re writing on their paper, but (the administrators) picked the biggest one,” Woodrum said. “But instead of giving us a leadup, like, ‘Hey, third strike for having your phone up — pouches, or if your grades drop too far, you have to do pouches, that makes sense. … My teacher had a phone locker last year and she did it when she reminded (students) to do it. The phone lockers are a good idea.”

Jamie Jenks, another junior, said while the pouches are an interesting idea, she felt it’s a punishment to students who know how to self-regulate use.

“I like having (devices) out in class,” she said. “The teachers use it to get good kids more engaged. … It’s sad that we have to come to this now. I don’t particularly agree with it.”

Wade said Carson City School District is abiding by its Policy 0546-P governing student electronic device usage, adopted as required by Nevada Revised Statute 392.4637, which states, “Students may possess electronic devices, provided that such devices do not disrupt the educational program or school activity.”

The policy states devices at the high school level “shall be turned off or muted and out of sight during class time unless the student is specifically instructed otherwise by the teacher or site administrator.”

It goes on to state at the middle and elementary school levels, “electronic devices shall be turned off and out of sight during regular school hours. The site administrator will identify the appropriate time for the use of electronic devices before the start of school and after school, or in conjunction with extracurricular activities.”

CHS Dean of Students Shauna Wooldridge said the goal is to help remove the power struggle that has become worse between students and teachers on managing electronic devices in the classroom.

“We are super hopeful that this takes that out,” she said. “There are going to be conflicts and issues and there are going to be conversations that happen around this. The biggest issue we’ve always had is with cell phones is that the teachers are responsible for that are also responsible for teaching and going through the whole lesson process, and that power struggle has gotten worse and worse and worse in the last couple of years. … But we do not want to have those power struggles in our classroom.”