As several schools across the state have begun implementing various cellphone restrictions, the Unalaska City School District is looking to follow suit.
Unalaska Superintendent Kim Hanisch said the district hasn't made any decisions, but a 20-member committee is contemplating what a cellphone ban might look like on the island.
“Do we have technology in the classrooms to take the place of cellphones at this point?” she said. “Or what do we need to get in kids’ hands so they don't need their phones? Where are they going to keep their phones? Are we going to support it with some digital literacy, digital citizenship type of training for students, as well as for adults?”
The island’s school district has been discussing possible bans for months, and a special committee has been meeting since the early fall to consider the possibility of smartphone restrictions.
Hanisch said they’ve surveyed parents, teachers and students to see what they think about a technology ban. She said they started with students grades four through 12, asking them several questions about their phones and social media use.
“Does it impact your learning?” Hanisch said. “Does it impact social-emotional development? How often [do] they use it, what [do] they use a phone for in school?”
Next, district officials got feedback from teachers and parents. She said, surprisingly, a small majority of the parents favor some kind of ban.
Hanisch said after they look at the parent survey, the committee will discuss where they may want to start with a ban. That could take shape in many different ways, from a total ban while students are on school property with phones locked in special cases, blocked Wi-Fi access or special restrictions in certain areas of the school.
At a school board meeting in October, former board member Carlos Tayag said he wasn’t taking a stance on the possibility of cellphone restrictions, but if any were implemented, he would favor an absolute ban.
“Not that you can have a cellphone here or there, or you can use it in this manner or that manner,” Tayag said. “I think all that stuff gets muddled a little bit. I think it makes it complicated, and it doesn't always give a hard rule for students to follow. And so I think, if you're talking about a cellphone ban, I think it should be a cellphone ban in an absolute way, where cellphones shouldn't be used in school, at least during classes.”
Several recent studies show that excessive cellphone use in adolescents may be associated with depression and anxiety. And some show that when smartphones are removed from classrooms, students learn better and have lower anxiety levels.
Hanisch said there are still concerns about removing students’ phones. Some parents worry about not being able to contact their children during emergencies, for example. She said the committee is already considering ways to help parents feel safe if cellphones are banned.
Hanisch has also reached out to other districts to hear how their cellphone policies work.
“Districts that are able to make changes in this area have spent some time to really talk about the logistics of it,” she said. “So like, let's say we decide January 1 that we want to ban cellphones. What most are saying is ‘Now, think through it, go to the teachers and say, All right, if we're going to do that, how's that going to impact?’”
Restricting cellphones is a fairly new issue for Unalaska, where affordable, high-speed internet wasn’t available for most residents until almost two years ago.
Hanisch said the discussion around a smartphone ban didn’t surface because students were misusing social media or technology. She said it’s a community-wide conversation about students’ wellbeing.
“We all care about the kids, so I think that's important to keep in the back of our mind,” Hanisch said.
There’s no statewide cellphone policy, but Alaska’s Board of Education and Early Development has urged the state to limit cellphone use in classrooms. Still, any restrictions would have to come from local districts.
The logistics of a possible ban are still up in the air. That will depend on the committee's recommendations to the school board, which will then hear public comment and vote on any restrictions.
The committee meets again Tuesday to discuss the results of the parent survey.
