In Plymouth, while at the state level, the banning of cell phones in schools, is still being debated, Plymouth schools have had a cell phone ban policy in place for about two years according to Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Christopher Campbell.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more..
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Christopher Campbell says the cell phone use policy has evolved:
“So what we’ve done a couple of years ago is, we had them away for the day, so the students have had them, you know, they might have them in their possession, they’d be in a bag. Some teachers had little cases to put them in—in their classrooms, but they weren’t using them unless the teacher asked them to pull it out for an instructional reason.”
And, some students were interviewed about the restricted cell phone use policy:
“We found that the students actually—and we’ve interviewed and surveyed some of our kids on this—they’ve found it as a relief, you know, to get away from some of that distraction because we’re trying to get everyone to be present—present in the moment. Cell phones, again, there’s a time and place, but we’ve found that it’s been a great addition to put that, sort of, regulation in place.”
State Representative Michelle Badger has the perspective of a person who has served on the Plymouth School Committee for thirteen years and as the chairman for two years…
“I think it’s important that we’re looking at the age and development at the appropriate level, because if we’re legislating the same way for kindergartners and those who are juniors in high school—they’re in a different place. They need their phones for different things, and so for me, I think it’s important that we look at the different student populations when we legislate.”
In Plymouth, Bobbi Clark, WATD News.
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