Hoover High's restricted phone policy shows promise. Will a district wide policy follow?
The Des Moines School District said it's considering restricting cellphone use district-wide. Already this school year, Des Moines' Hoover High School is limiting when students cellphones can used during the school day.
For nearly 12 years, teacher Erin Bosley has never taught class without the distraction of technology until this year.
"It really is a gamechanger this year. It's a complete 180, and I mean that wholeheartedly," said Bosley, an English language learning instructor at Hoover High School.
Cellphones and air pods are no longer allowed in class as part of the school's "Mental Health Movement" effort to improve mental health and build a stronger sense of community. Teachers at Hoover say they are seeing the difference in behavior and academics.
Chemistry teacher Catheryn Moore said, "My students are succeeding more. I have not had this many A's and B's at this point in the year, ever."
Under Hoover's Mental Health Movement, it is no longer up to teachers to discipline student's phone use. Instead, a small group of school staff members are dedicated to policing phone use. Dylan Wolfe, a restoration and safety coordinator at Hoover, said, jokingly, that some of his students may refer to him as the bad cop. He said the phone policy is less about punishment and more about policy.
"We just try to make sure everyone is heard, that everyone is understood and we can work through that," Wolfe said.
When the phone policy was first in effect, on average, 25 phones were seized a day from the student body population of 900 students. Now, those numbers are in the single digits every day. Students' sense of belonging and emotional regulation is up an average of 6% from last year, according to a survey conducted at the high school in which two-thirds of the student body participated.
"It has opened up conversations with students around mental health, anxiety, and depression," said Assistant Principal Rob Randazzo. "We have had numerous students who have said, 'Hey, this is working.'"
From its inception, Randazzo has led the mental health movement, which has caught the eye of central Iowa school districts. At least half a dozen area schools are considering new policies or already have them in place. Randazzo believes phone-free schools are best for kids but cautions districts from making snap-decision policies.
"I read a recent study that over 90 percent of schools have a phone policy, but less than 10 percent are actually implementing them," he said." [Schools should] be thoughtful in their policy and make sure they are able to implement it and play it out for students."
This week, Des Moines School board members met to discuss a parent-led petition to restrict phones. So far, the petition has more than 800 signatures. It asks for a K-12, bell-to-bell policy ban of cellphone use. Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts believes that restricting cell phones is necessary, but he wants people to know that there will be exceptions for safety and medical issues. He added that the district is carefully studying the best way to implement new guidelines.
"We are never going to use the term cell phone ban in any of our schools. Ban, just by its very definition, suggests that, for example, there will be no exceptions. Our approach to ensure that we are moving steadily towards a district-wide updated cellphone guideline is essentially anchored in the fact that we, too, have to recognize that a reduction of students' screen time and even access to their cell phones throughout the day certainly will lead to improvement around many of our indicators that we are always seeing at Hoover High School."
Roberts said he views this as a mental health movement, not a cellphone ban. He said the timeline for rolling out new rules is either Jan. 22 or the start of the fall semester next year.
He said that the decision has not been made yet.
Watch: DMPS considers petition for cell phone ban
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