School Board Considers Banning Student Cell Phone Use at BHS

By Aziley Crespo

The Branford Board of Education is considering banning the use of all personal technology devices from the high school next school year, meaning students will be required to lock their cell phones away in a security pouch for the entire school day.

As part of the proposed policy, all students will be required to place their personal devices in Yondr pouches, which are magnetically locked and can only be opened by a staff member at the end of the school day. 

The proposed policy would limit student-use of all personal devices during school hours, including phones, headphones, ipads, personal laptops and other personal technology at Branford High School. Once the cell phone is locked in the pouch, students will keep the pouch with them, but will not be able to access its contents until it is unlocked at the end of the day.

“I don’t like the idea of the new (proposed) policy.” Junior Moiyan Williams said. “An emergency can happen when I need to be able to contact my parents even during lunch. Why can’t I spend my time using my phone?”

The Board of Education is in the process of reviewing the proposed policy before adopting it, said Peter Berdon, the board chairman.

“There will be a series of readings [of the policy],”  Berdon said. The policy has to be approved at two seperate board meetings, he said.

The Board of Education will meet Wednesday, May 21 for a second reading of the policy, officially called Policy 5950 “Use of Private Technology Devices by Students.” The policy could be officially approved by the whole board as soon as June 4, Berdon said.

Wednesday’s board meeting is at 6:30 pm at Walsh Intermediate School.

The proposal has come about as school officials have discussed ways to limit distractions and improve student learning in schools.

In the winter, the Board of Education held a series of community book talks regarding the role cell phones play in the lives of children inspired by the book “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt. 

In the book, Haidt “lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time,” according to Goodreads.

In the book, “Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism.”

School officials said they hope the new policy to limit the use of personal devices in the school will improve classroom engagement, reduce screen-related distractions, and encourage more in-person interaction among students.

Last year, Gov. Ned Lamont urged statewide legislation to crack down on cell phone use in school. Branford High School in 2022 banned the student use of cell phones during class time.

What are your thoughts on the newest proposal? Let us know in the comments.