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<\/a>(The Coronado Times)<\/p>\nBrooke Falar, Principal at Coronado Middle School, said she was \u201ca little worried\u201d about implementing the new cell phone ban at CMS. But five weeks into the start of the school year, she said it\u2019s a big success.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very excited to report that this has been wonderful,\u201d said Falar at the September 10th school board meeting. \u201cThank you for your initiative and support as we pilot this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said CMS started rolling out the program in July, sending letters to families, informing them of the new policy. The letter was sent out several times prior to the start of school. Falar said the day before school started, the students picked up their pouches \u2014 which use magnets to lock each student\u2019s cell phone in the bag for the duration of the school day.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, the students have been able to follow the rules amazingly well,\u201d said Falar. \u201cBut no matter what rules we have, there are always going to be students who break them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first infraction, the student must turn their phone in to administration for the duration of class time for five school days. They also get a detention. For the second offense, the parents must pick up the student\u2019s device from school. Then the child gets another detention and is required to turn the phone into administrators for 20 school days.\u00a0 For the third infraction, the student gets a detention and must turn in the phone each school day for the remainder of the semester, or 20 days \u2014 whichever is longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to announce that after five weeks of school, we\u2019ve only had nine first offenses,\u201d said Falar.<\/p>\n
She shared that teachers were surveyed on the results of the new cell phone policy, and all 36 who were surveyed said the policy was effective. Teachers are reporting back that there is more student engagement at lunch, less distractions in class and kids are happier overall.<\/p>\n
One teacher said that students are getting to know each other on a deeper level, and another said \u201cIt\u2019s awesome to see students talking to eachother and playing during lunch\u201d instead of zoning out on their phones.<\/p>\n
In addition, the school has started banning computers for the first 20 minutes of lunch, so the students are completely device-free.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re playing card games at lunch, there is a game of UNO, there are volleyball circles all over the place,\u201d said Falar. \u201cSo it\u2019s just been really great for the students and for the culture of CMS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trustee Mal Sandie congratulated Falar on taking the lead in successfully implementing the new policy. He said he was there for the first day of school, and witnessed an organized roll-out. He said there was no push-back from the kids, and they were very respectful.<\/p>\n
Falar said that next steps could include routine pouch-checks, and also a system for determining a course of action if a student leaves their phone at home. But overall, she\u2019s seeing less anxiety and a more \u201cpositive vibe\u201d from students when they are on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis went even better than I could have planned,\u201d said Falar. \u201cI\u2019m just so excited about how smooth this has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
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