A normal school day at a Long Island middle school now begins with students locking their cellphones up in a pouch and putting it way the entire day.
“We want our kids to be healthy,” said Daniel McCabe, principal of Nesaquake Middle School in Smithtown. “We want them to be engaged in school, to be in an environment that is distraction free.”
McCabe pointed to studies that have shown that removing the cellphone and distractions from the classroom will improve student engagement, mental health and even well-being. For the past two years, the district has had a no cellphone policy in the classrooms, but it is often ignored.
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Eighth grader Taylor Kratz said when a person’s cellphone rings during class, it can be distracting.
“Kids will have them in their pocket and Snapchat will ring, ding ding, and the teacher will say 'Put your phone in your locker,' and everyone stops to watch him or her leave the room," said Kratz.
The cellphone pouches are being used at all three middle schools and is costing the district roughly $67,000. A replacement bag costs about $25. But administrators believe the cost is well worth it, since nothing else has worked so far.
When asked about cellphone organizers where kids can leave their phones before heading into class, McCabe said that “even the presence of those phones hanging in the organizer proved to be distracting.” He added that with notifications going off all day, it was causing kids stress because they feel like they have to constantly check.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, kids ages 8-18 now spend, on average, 7.5 hours in front of a screen for entertainment each day. The school district wants to give middle schoolers a break from that while at school.
“I like that, I want my kids to learn when they are here and not to be on their phones,” said Smithtown parent Thomas Kratz.
But not all parents are in agreement and the school’s decision has not been without some controversy. Many say they want their kids to be able to contact them.
“I want to make sure she is able to call me or text me in case there’s an emergency,” said Kasia Wikiri whose daughter is 11 and has a cellphone. “I don’t like not having a connection with my daughter the whole day.”
“Students at this age, it’s very hard for them to have that impulse control,” said Dr. Mark Secaur, superintendent of schools. “Middle school is a very difficult time for students so to free them from distraction to allow them to engage more fully in the academics we thought this was the best place to start.”
The district will see how the program works in the middle schools and they are not out ruling the possibility of expanding it to the high schools.
