The Hamilton County School Board moved closer to a total ban of student cell phones during school hours at the policy committee meeting on Tuesday night.
The board is mulling stronger policy language and researching the cost of Yondr cell phone lock bags for all middle and high school students.
“I want those phones put up, and I want a pouch, and I want the person that’s going to carry his phone to buy that pouch,” said Board Chairman Joe Smith.
He compared the $27 pouch with buying a parking permit to drive one’s own car to school.
“Common sense should prevail,” he said. “All the data everywhere tells us to get rid of these dad-gum phones.”
The board did not appear eager to wait for current state legislation on the subject to be finalized, though that is what attorney Scott Bennett advised.
Board members were concerned at the February board meeting that students without lockers or cars wouldn’t have a safe place to keep their phones during the day. They favored a lockable bag kept by the student over a deposit system at each classroom door. But the honor system doesn’t work, they said.
“Unless you collect them it’s almost impossible to keep them from using them during the day,” said board member Felice Hadden.
Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson estimated a cost of $500,000 to buy the pouches for all, but the administration also was tasked to find the cost for low-income students only.
The power of old arguments that students may need phones in case of emergency, to take pictures in a science lab or to use as a calculator in high-level math have begun to fade as board members report overwhelming unhappiness with cell phones in their districts.
Board member Ben Daugherty pointed to cyberbullying, and board member Jackie Thomas said teachers are exhausted from arguing with students all day to put their phones away in class.
“A teacher should not have to deal with the headache of fussing with a child about a phone,” she said. “It shouldn’t even be occurring.”
A Yondr pouch’s magnetized lock can be unlocked at special stations throughout a school building, such as at exits.