Missouri school districts getting ready for anticipated statewide cellphone ban statewide cellphone ban
A new cellphone ban in Missouri schools could look much different from district to district.
The bill was passed during the last legislative session and now awaits Governor Mike Kehoe’s decision.
Anticipating Kehoe’s signature, superintendents are drafting local policies.
North Callaway School District’s superintendent, Kenya Thompson, told Newstalk KZRG their middle school already adopted a similar policy last year, giving them a head start.
“Our middle school is grade 6-8 and we saw increased grades,” said Thompson. “We saw a decrease in student discipline and long-term suspensions and OSS (out-of-school-suspension) , and we attribute a lot of that to the lack of distractions that were cell phones, but we’re still looking for that guidance related to what those policies will look like from our policy creators, and we’ll kind of roll it out as we move forward.”
Dr. Kevin Goddard superintendent of Rich Hill R-IV School District in west central Missouri told Newstalk KZRG this will be difficult to enforce initially.
“There will be so much resistance to it,” said Goddard. “I mean we see kids all the way down to kindergarten that are addicted to their cellphones, and they basically have anxiety attacks when you take them away from them.
My daughter goes to a different school district, and they have the cellphone pouches that keep a cellphone signal from getting through, but they can be cut open with a pair of scissors in the case of an emergency.”
Dr. Kevin Carl, superintendent of the Hancock Place School District in South St. Louis County told Newstalk KZRG for now they are going to put the responsibility on the student.
“For the time being we’re going to be having our students be able to retain the cell phone with them in a bookbag or a purse or frankly even in their pocket, as long as we don’t see it,” said Carl. “Now, I know students are resourceful, probably the flip side to that is aren’t you worried that kids are going to try to sneak that out? Well, I won’t say that I’m worried that I think that’s a real issue that we may have to tackle from time to time, I do.”
The bill says schools must have accommodations for students who need their cellphones to help with medical conditions.
The bill does not require phones to be locked up, that will be under local control and school boards will have to decide whether devices will be stowed in designated areas or allowed in students’ backpacks.
If the bill gets signed into law by Governor Kehoe, area school districts will have just under two months to create a new no cellphone policy.