CAMDEN — Preble Shawnee High School students may soon have to abide by a no-cell phone policy if a new policy mirroring one currently in place at the PS Middle School is approved in September.
The policy, originally on the agenda to be approved at the Tuesday, Aug. 13, PS Board of Education meeting, was pulled for further review and discussion with high school administration and staff, and to make students and parents aware.
“Mrs. (Dianna) Whitis (Principal) is and Mr. (Dylan) Mann (Assistant Principal) came to me the last couple days,” Superintendent Todd Bowling explained at the Aug. 13, meeting. “Governor Dewine has made it mandatory that every school district have a cell phone policy in place.”
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be for or against, but you need a cell phone policy in place,” he said. “She (Whitis) has data and statistics that showed that the maneuver that the middle school did, did work successfully. So, it’s the same policy that they will be putting in, and it is a policy that we need the board to vote on and approve prior to implementing it. Once it gets approved, tonight, she’s going to share it out with all staff and all parents and make sure that everyone is aware of the policy.”
Board member Nick Duskey asked, “Are we just putting the copy of the middle school policy in place for the high school to satisfy the requirement, or are we intending on implementing this same policy in the high school?”
“The first thing is, get it in the Student Handbook. So that’s why it’s listed as the letter that will go to parents and guardians as part of student handbook. It will be the same exact rules and expectations,” Bowling responded.
Board members asked about the staff’s feeling on adopting the policy. Principal Whitis was unavailable for the meeting, “But I believe her intention was to see if the board was okay moving in that direction,” Bowling said. “And they have four days of in service to discuss ramifications and what they’re going to do. It was already something they talked about last year but had not made a final decision. And then when Governor DeWine came out over the summer with the policy needed, that’s when she made a decision to go this direction.”
Students would still be allowed to utilize phones when a teacher uses them as part of a class.
Bowling also noted, there “was not many consequences that were being administered out because of telephone violations” in the middle school last year.
Discipline for violations of the policy would not be immediate, due to the lateness of the policy’s inception. “She’s listed the offenses, and what will happen if you have an offense,” Bowling noted. “The first one’s a strong warning, the second one’s a DT. They will back off of that the first month, until we get to the end of September, before they do full enforcement. It’s late arriving to them. They all have grade level assembly meetings that they’ll have at the beginning of the school year, where they’ll explain it to the kids, and then they can transition into it.”
“I kind of have mixed feelings. I mean, I don’t even know if it’s mixed feelings is the right word. It’s just kind of neutral about it” Board President Julie Singleton said. “I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it. I didn’t love it when Miss Taulbee did it with the middle school, but then seeing they didn’t really have a lot of issues or pushback — I was wrong in that manner, and my initial push back to her. I don’t love that we’re doing it a week before school starts. It seems rather late but I understand that if we have to put a policy in place, we might as well put a policy that we’re going to do long term anyways, but with the understanding that it’s a learned policy like you said, and can be tested.”
“I agree the timing is not good, but I think their bigger fear is, if we start in January, then it’s a real big change, because they’ve had a semester to get accustomed to it,” Bowling added. “And I can tell you, three out of five Preble County schools are moving to this. Some schools are doing a magnet bag that you put it in and then the only way to release is before you leave for the day, put it next to a thing that unlocks it. Those are at a cost of $15 each, but it makes sure. One, the phone’s not confiscated. Two, it’s in the bag, it’s safe, and it stays with the student.”
Other board members also questioned the timing and the inability for Whitis to be at the meeting to discuss it with them.
“I can bring it back for sure at the September meeting, if that would be your request, because I was not happy that was brought to me this late, either. But in lieu of what their request was and how much information they could get out, was the other thing.”
“I could speak as a teacher who was, when we when we talked about allowing students to use phones in the classroom or have them out at any time, I was pro, ‘yeah, sure.’ You know, they need to learn to be able to monitor that themselves. They’re going to become adults. And, you know, I don’t care if you have it out on their desk, and I don’t care if it’s out and up like this, they can go, oh, so and so sent me a Snapchat, you know, and that’s okay. I don’t mind that,” a member of the teaching staff said. “But what has happened, and especially in the last three or four years, is that students just flat out abuse them and they’re sitting there, and they don’t care what they’re supposed to be doing, or your lesson, or your teaching. It used to be they would hide it behind a book. Now they don’t care.
“And you know, as teachers it gets really tiring to continuously tell the same students to put the phone away,” she continued. “Now we’re not allowed to take the phones, you know. And now, you know what, I can’t even ask them to put it on my desk, so I just tell them to put it in their pocket, and then they don’t, so I have to send them to the office. “They just aren’t able to leave it alone. They just don’t have that self-control. I mean, it’s not just a few students, it’s a large percentage of our students. They just can’t. I would say the smaller percentage are the ones that leave it at the corner of their desk and just look at it. Otherwise, they’ve got it out and they’re using it during instruction time. They’re using it, during teaching time. So, it’s very frustrating, and we’re all over it. I’ll speak for most of the teachers that I’ve talked with about the same issue. They’re over it.”
“If you want more time and you’d like to see more like the middle school did with the survey going out to parents, and more time spent on talking to the students, especially during the grade level meetings, which is very important. It talks about credits, what you need to have at the end of your freshman year what our expectations are. And, hey, we’re going to move to a no cell phone policy in September, here’s what you need to start getting used to. It would also give the teachers time to start implementing it, some of it without, so called enforcing the step one, step two, step three, step four, step five,” Bowling said.
The middle school policy, approved last year, made the middle school a cell-free zone. Under that policy, sellphones should remain in backpacks, purses or lockers and must be turned off or silent from the beginning of the school day, until the end of the school day.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
