Cell Phones (Policy 2363) /
Electronic Communications and Recording Devices (Policy 5516)
The Ramsey Board of Education recognizes the purpose that cellular phones may serve regarding the safety and well-being of students. It is, therefore, the policy of the Ramsey Board of Education that students are allowed to bring a cellular phone to school with restrictions. Unfortunately, the cell phone devices (with the paired headphones, earbuds, airpods, etc.) used on a daily basis by High School students have become a negative influence on the school climate, the students’ ability to focus, students losing the devices or accessories to the devices, and for classroom activities to take place without disruption. Critically, research has shown “the arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health. Sadly, rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011, and there is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives—and making them seriously unhappy:
Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on non screen activities are more likely to be happy.
Teens who visit social-networking sites every day but see their friends in person less frequently are the most likely to agree with the statement “A lot of times I feel lonely,” “I often feel left out of things,” and “I often wish I had more good friends.” Teens’ feelings of loneliness spiked in 2013 and remained high since.
The more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression. Since 2007, the homicide rate among teens has declined, but the suicide rate has increased.
The number of teens who feel left out has reached all-time highs across age groups. Like the increase in loneliness, the upswing in feeling left out has been swift and significant.
Fifty-seven percent more teens were sleep deprived in 2015 than in 1991. In just the four years from 2012 to 2015, 22 percent more teens failed to get seven hours of sleep.” (Twenge)
Astonishingly, not only do our phones shape our thoughts in deep and complicated ways, but the effects persist even when we aren’t using the devices. As the brain grows dependent on technology, the research suggests, the intellect weakens. Now that our phones have made it so easy to gather information online, our brains are likely offloading even more of the work of remembering to technology. If the only thing at stake were memories of trivial facts, that might not matter. But, as the pioneering psychologist and philosopher William James said in an 1892 lecture, “the art of remembering is the art of thinking.” Only by encoding information in our biological memory can we weave the rich intellectual associations that form the essence of personal knowledge and give rise to critical and conceptual thinking. No matter how much information swirls around us, the less well-stocked our memory, the less we have
to think with.
Adrian Ward, a Cognitive Psychologist and marketing professor at the University of Texas at Austin has seen mounting evidence that using a smartphone, or even hearing one ring or vibrate, produces a welter of distractions that makes it harder to concentrate on a difficult problem or job. The division of attention impedes reasoning and performance.
A 2015 Journal of Experimental Psychology study, involving 166 subjects, found that when people’s phones beep or buzz while they’re in the middle of a challenging task, their focus wavers, and their work gets sloppier—whether they check the phone or not.
Another 2015 study, which involved 41 iPhone users and appeared in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, showed that when people hear their phone ring but are unable to answer it, their blood pressure spikes, their pulse quickens, and their problem-solving skills decline.
The researchers recruited 520 undergraduate students at UCSD and gave them two standard tests of intellectual acuity. One test gauged “available cognitive capacity,” a measure of how fully a person’s mind can focus on a particular task. The second assessed“fluid intelligence,” a person’s ability to interpret and solve an unfamiliar problem. The results were striking. In both tests, the subjects whose phones were in view posted the worst scores
In subsequent interviews, nearly all the participants said that their phones hadn’t been a distraction—that they hadn’t even thought about the devices during the experiment. They remained oblivious even as the phones disrupted their focus and thinking
As Dr. Wegner and Dr. Ward explained in a 2013 Scientific American article, when people call up information through their devices, they often end up suffering from delusions of intelligence. They feel as though “their own mental capacities” had generated the information, not their devices. “The advent of the ‘information age’ seems to have created a generation of people who feel they know more than ever before,” the scholars concluded, even though “they may know even less about the world around them. People’s knowledge may dwindle as gadgets grant them easier access to online data.” (Carr)
As a result of these findings, the cell phone expectations for students have been altered to promote learning, conversation, enriched mental health, and a positive school climate. Our expectation is that cell phones are put away while in school. Accordingly, cell phones must not be used at all during class time. If a student is disrupting the educational environment with a cell phone or electronic device, it will be confiscated and taken to the office. Please note, administration may review the content of a cell phone if pertinent information is suspected to be on the devices related in some capacity to a discipline or a safety issue, or some other concern. Cellular phones may be carried by students while on field trips or other school sponsored events out of the school building either on or off of school grounds. These devices shall be utilized with discretion so as to not create a disturbance.
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The following discipline structure has been created to discourage the use of cell phones during class time:
1st Infraction
Loss of cell phone for the day
Conversation with Mr. Biggan
2nd Infraction
Loss of cell phone for the day
PM detention
3rd Infraction
Loss of cell phone for the day
Parent meeting
4th Infraction
Loss of cell phone for the day
In-School-Detention, parent meeting with Principal, school counselor, and Student Assistance Counselor
5th infraction
Loss of cell phone privileges for 4 weeks
Student must hand in their cell phone to Mr. Biggan every day for 4 weeks at the beginning of the school day. Phone will be turned off, placed in a locked cabinet, and returned at the end of the day.
Works Cited:
Carr, N. (2017, October 6). How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved
August 7, 2022, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-smartphones-hijack-our-minds-1507307811
Twenge, J. M. (2018, March 19). Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/