BETHLEHEM — Knowledge of the world and the power of a supercomputer are in the pockets of most teenagers, but school authorities are desperate to take them away from students.
Cell phones have become a nuisance in most schools: social media can be abused to bully people or encourage destructive acts, and watching videos or playing games is far more common than using the device to study.
Most schools initially had a strict ban on carrying smartphones during the day, but some districts have gradually eased them over the years. For example, in the city of Schenectady, students were delighted when their request to use phones during lunchtime was approved in 2011.
But now some school officials worry that games and videos have replaced in-person interaction. In Bethlehem, school officials recently decided to ban phone calls for the entire school day starting in the fall, hoping it will encourage students to socialize more.
While many schools allow mobile phones to be carried during lunch breaks and often also during lessons, those responsible in Bethlehem are specifically striving to limit their use during non-teaching periods as well.
“We want our students to be social and interact with one another,” Assistant Superintendent Dave Hurst told the school board at a meeting last week.
Teachers had asked students during class to put their phones away or put them in bags hanging on the classroom wall. That “has limited phone use in classrooms to some degree, but not entirely,” Hurst said.
To solve both problems, the school board plans to spend $26,773 on Yondr, lockable bags that will be given to all students this fall. They feature magnetic locks that open when you tap a release base; In high school, several are available for students to use when exiting the building.
Hurst said his drive to be more restrictive on phones was fueled by studies showing a nationwide increase in students feeling lonely and isolated, leading to much higher rates of depression and suicide.
“People are geared towards socializing,” he said. “You see students (at lunch) sitting three or four at a table, all on the phone and not interacting with each other at all. You lost that social connection.”
However, parents, students and some counselors are unsure if removing cellphones at school will make a difference.
“Will everyone become a natural extrovert and talk to everyone in the cafeteria? “The kids I know … avoid the cafeteria,” parent Cara Brousseau said of the proposal during the school board meeting.
“I wish they would socialize but you can’t just expect that to happen spontaneously by locking their phone away. There has to be a way to get there.”
Natasha Ruiz, whose son is a freshman, said it’s not necessarily unhealthy to watch videos on the phone during your lunch break.
“He goes to the library and relaxes on the phone for 10 minutes watching videos and putting a smile on his face,” she told the school board.
In interviews conducted by the Times Union after school one day last week, several groups of Bethlehem High School students commented on the proposal.
One teenager said it would be a relief not to have to keep track of everything on his phone. “A weight off your shoulders,” he said.
But a friend of his vehemently disagreed, saying he needed his phone because school was boring. “What do I do in my free hours?” he said. “It would make my life hell.”
Two students expressed their fears of active shooters, saying that in the event of an attack they would need their phones to communicate with their parents.
The Times Union has asked many local school districts, and most said they don’t lock phones but expect students to leave them turned off and put away during class. But Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Green Island ban the use of phones outright and require students to keep them off, including during lunch and study hours. In Albany, lockable bags are only used at two schools, including an alternative high school and an elementary school. Other school districts, including Schenectady, don’t include them at all, allowing teachers to integrate the phones into lessons if needed. Few schools restrict phone use during lunch breaks. But at Schoharie Junior/Senior High School, the ‘Yondr’ lockable bags are in use all year round.
“It’s been a game changer,” Superintendent David Blanchard said. “What we immediately noticed was that the children were talking to each other.”
Students signed up for electives mid-year because they were bored in the classroom without their phones, he said.
The number of suspensions has decreased significantly, which Blanchard linked to a decrease in arguments about issues on social media.
“Nobody has Facebook muscles if they don’t have Facebook,” he said. “Minor altercations were (earlier) posted on social media and nobody talked about it. Now the students talk to each other and communicate in real time. Being personal is a much healthier way to live.”
A local psychiatrist agreed that social media could lead to an increase in depression and other mental health problems. Students often access social media via smartphones, but Dr. Kevin Martin of Saratoga Springs said he’s not convinced taking away the phones is the solution.
“It’s a correlation, not necessarily a causation. Around 2012, when we hit about 50 percent of smartphone usage, mental health problems in children and adolescents have been on the rise since then, even before the pandemic,” he said.
Social media is a concern because “the toxicity, some of the offensive things people say to each other, attacks and group aggregation are occurring,” he said. And he found that students can be stressed and distracted by the amount of messages they receive online during the day.
But he said that smartphones also have positive aspects. Students can find a welcoming community online that they may not find locally.
A lack of social interaction is “definitely an issue,” he said. “But honestly, they might text their boyfriend who’s also at school, but they don’t have the same lunch break.”
Post a Comment