Thurston Co. school district votes 4-1 on cell phone rules. Union president objects
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Board voted 4-1 to allow high school students phone use at lunch and between classes.
- Union president Ray Nelson objected, calling the rollback of the ban a problematic choice.
- Disciplinary details remain undecided while district and union plan to develop them.
The North Thurston Public Schools board voted 4-1 on Tuesday to tweak its cell phone rules, which will now allow high school students to use the devices during lunch and between classes. The policy for preschool students through 8th grade remains unchanged.
North Thurston Education Association President Ray Nelson took issue with the high school change, saying the district had chosen “the easy way out.”
“I think that altering the draft policy to take out the prohibition around using smart devices, cell phones, whatever, for high school students during lunch and passing times is a problem,” he said.
For the past two years, the district has had an “off and away all day” cell phone rule for all students as agreed to by the union and district. It allowed students to bring the devices to school, but they could not be used at all during the day, including at lunch and between classes.
As that two-year agreement wound down, the next step was to make the cell phone rules district policy. Although the past two years have largely been viewed as successful, Nelson had called on the district for better enforcement of the rules at the high school level.
At the same time, some high school principals were having trouble enforcing the “off and away all day” rule during lunch, and some high school student representatives to the board had called for more cell phone freedom during those times.
That resulted in a proposal that was discussed by the board in June and then again on Tuesday.
Nelson shared some other concerns: he worries that tardiness will increase now that high school students can check their devices on the way to their next class, and he envisions a scenario where students, given a little more freedom, will feel compelled to check their devices before the end of the day.
Disciplinary action remained an unknown, although Superintendent Troy Oliver said he and the union will build that out together.
As suggested by the Phone Free Schools Movement, a nonprofit, Nelson said the disciplinary steps might look like this:
- First violation: the phone is taken away and picked up at the end of the school day.
- Second violation: the parent or guardian has to pick it up.
- Third violation: The phone is not returned until a written agreement is produced between the school, student and parent.
School board member Gretchen Maliska was one of the five members who voted in favor of the revised policy.
“I completely understand Ray’s point tonight and the difficulty that it brings, but I do think we have to partner with our families,” she said. “Our families have to be a partner in that solution. But monitoring (cell phone use), and adding additional staff for monitoring the 9-12 grade level is impossible at this point within our state, but I do think (the policy) sets healthy boundaries and healthy expectations.”
The board also requested some minor revisions to the proposal: the rephrasing of a sentence in one area, and to change a rule for students who are allowed to use a phone for mental health reasons, but broaden it to just “health” reasons.
She argued for that change because she wears a glucose monitor that sends information to her phone. Some students might in a similar situation, she said.
Board member Jeff Line voted against the policy on Tuesday because he felt they had requested enough changes to warrant waiting on a clean draft of it.
“I prefer to see a completed document before I approve,” he said.
There was one more change: some parents previously had raised privacy concerns over a “consent to search” proposal, but it was removed before the board voted.
