LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – School will be in session for Clark County School District students soon.
However, students can’t have in their phones in hand during class.
That’s why one CCSD student created an online petition to change the new measure, and over 10,000 supporters have followed suit.
The district is rolling out signal-blocking cell phone pouches to lock phones up in classes at all secondary schools. They will be available in an emergency.
School district leaders tell FOX5 the signal-blocking cell phone pouches are meant to keep students safe, and limit distractions. But one incoming freshman, Charlize Leary, thinks the money could have been better spent.
“I think that these pouches are a complete waste of money just because it is basically a piece of fabric,” Leary said. “It’s like telling a kid to put their phone in their backpack, but adding a plastic wrap around it.”
Leary created a Change.org petition on Friday, and it already has well over 10,000 signatures from students to parents opposing the measure. CCSD leaders have taken notice.
“I did see the petition,” said Kevin McPartlin, the Associate Superintendent of the Clark County School District. “I didn’t see it was at 10,000, but I think with any change there’s going to be concern”.
But McPartlin explains what school district really hope to accomplish with these new measures after hearing from students and teachers in the fifth largest school district in the country.
“It is about cyberbullying and bullying that occurs in the classroom,” McPartlin said, adding it’s also about overall campus safety.
“We’ve listened to our community and the parents, the big thing was, ‘I need to get access to my kids in an emergency, and so that’s why we didn’t do like many other districts have done, like a full cell phone ban,” McPartlin said. He adds CCSD leaders got feedback from students who said the new policy was a bit of relief so they could focus on their studies instead of trying to keep up all day on social media. He says it allowed them to relax for a bit.
High school English teacher Daniel Tillman’s classroom was one of 40 that got to test out the cell phone pouches in the last few weeks of the school year. He’s surprised they didn’t get as much pushback.
“They were extremely effective,” Tillman said. “You put the phone in, it immediately stops all the signal, and it’s going to be a great tool for our teachers. I was expecting a lot more pushback, but for the most part, the students were pretty complacent, and they did what they had to do.” Tillman adds when students got distracted, he did make them put away their phones.
Distractions are one thing, but protecting students’ mental health is another. This is especially important for middle school Art teacher, Amy Reusch who says that will be an added benefit of these pouches, as she and other teachers found that students often bully each other in schools via social media apps.
“It’s becoming apparent that this is a major cause of distraction, so a lot of the fights that occur in schools and we have multiple a day that are arranged via these social media apps, and there are accounts where I’ve seen fellow faculty members and students on where a picture is posted of them in the class where they look awkward,” Reusch said. “Unfortunately people are writing really nasty things. And unlike when we were younger, we got bullied and that was gone after about a month, but it’s there, it’s permanent and so it’s really affecting the students, their mental health. That’s really sad for me as a teacher.”
Still, the move is being criticized by Leary and thousands of others who want other things to change instead.
“I think that that funding should go to things that we haven’t tried, such as the school lunches, the Chromebook fixes, the internet fixes, and just overall security in the schools,” Leary said.
The pouches have been ordered, and this new policy is happening starting August 12th.
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