By Abraham Kenmore
SCDailyGazette.com
COLUMBIA — A model policy requiring South Carolina’s K-12 students to stash their cell phones during the entire school day received initial approval Tuesday, Aug. 12, from the State Board of Education, which wanted to get more feedback before finalizing minimum guidelines for school districts.
The unanimous vote comes six weeks after the state budget mandated school districts to adopt a policy banning cellphones during the school day or risk state funding. But the State Board of Education must first adopt a model policy for them to follow.
The goal is for all districts to have a policy in place before January, according to a memo the state agency sent school administrators over the summer.
The board was considering a two-page draft proposal, which would require phones, smart watches and other devices to be turned off and stashed through the entire school day, not just during class time. It would allow exceptions for students with particular medical or educational needs, for specific educational purposes and for high schoolers who volunteer as local firefighters or other emergency responders.
It allows for school districts to set more restrictive rules, but not less.
It also gives school districts flexibility on setting rules outside the school day, such as whether to allow devices on bus rides. Districts could also decide where students would be required to keep their phones from the opening to closing bells — whether in a locker, a backpack or somewhere else.
Board Chairman David O’Shields said he wanted to take some additional time on such an important policy to gather feedback, including from parents.
“I do think without equivocation there needs to be a serious reigning in of cellphone use and proliferation because it’s negative consequences, especially for adolescents, can be quite harmful,” said O’Shields, superintendent of Laurens County School District 56 (Clinton).
While board members wanted more time, they were enthusiastic about the underlying idea.
“It’s not just about the discipline in the schools,” said Christian Hanley Jr. of Berkeley County. “The discipline is important, but it’s ruining our kids.”
Hanley noted the board put a lot of work into another regulation passed earlier in the year that bars books in schools that describe “sexual conduct.”
“You can get a whole lot more porn on these phones than you’re going to get in those library books,” he said.
Matthew Ferguson, deputy superintendent for the Department of Education, said the agency has already received a lot of feedback in creating the model rules.
More than 9,000 teachers responded to a survey on banning phones. Teachers reported that phones were taking up hours of their teaching time, and they asked for support from school administrators so they don’t have to be the phone police, he said.
“When we first sent the survey out … our survey platform thought we had been hacked and spoofed because the responses were coming in so quickly,” Ferguson told the board.
State Superintendent Ellen Weaver said her agency can also help school officials educate parents on the policies.
“The districts are very hungry for us as the department to help create communication tools and resources,” she said.
Abraham Kenmore is a reporter covering elections, health care and more. He joins the S.C. Daily Gazette from The Augusta Chronicle, where he reported on Georgia legislators, military and housing issues.
S.C. Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
