Coeur d'Alene schools no-phone policy up for debate Monday

COEUR d'ALENE — Students don't really pass paper notes in class anymore.

They have computers at their fingertips in the form of smartphones and other personal electronic devices. Texting and social media have replaced the origami-folded paper notes of yesteryear for student-to-student communication.

The Coeur d'Alene School District is restricting use of cellphones during the school day, including during lunch and passing periods, which prompted Coeur d'Alene High School junior Ryan Drappo to launch a change.org petition opposing the ban. More than 1,700 people had signed it by Friday afternoon.

"It is understood that PEDs can negatively impact students socially and academically in the classroom," Ryan states in his reasoning for the petition.

"Banning cell phones during lunch and passing periods goes against the negative academic impacts," he states on change.org. "Many of us students now use cell phones to socialize, as the large amounts of technical advancements in the past decade have changed how most groups, and especially the youth socialize. Although this policy may seem justified, it is going against modern innovation with media and socialization."

Coeur d'Alene School Board Chair Rebecca Smith said the board renewed its conversation about cellphones in school last summer as more and more dialogue on the subject was taking place locally, regionally and at the state and national levels. A board policy has been in place since 2018, but the procedures used to implement that policy are about to change.

"Our goal has always been to create more space for our students to focus on learning and interpersonal interactions that don't include a screen," she told The Press in a statement. "We are grateful to our students, teachers, principals and staff for being so responsive and engaged as we navigate this change. We recognize the work it takes to implement something like this and we look forward to continued conversations about it as we go along."

Senate Bill 1032, which was filed for a third reading Friday, states that every Idaho public school needs to adopt policy governing student use of electronic devices in school buildings and on school grounds or premises during school hours. This is to be done in an effort to promote distraction-free learning.

The Post Falls School District's personal electronic device policy, adopted in 2004 and last reviewed in 2021, prohibits the use of cellphones during class time but has no mention of lunch or passing periods. Lakeland Joint School District's electronic devices policy limits cellphone use to before and after school for all students but permits high schoolers to use them during lunch.

Although Coeur d'Alene's policy restricts use throughout the school day, students with disabilities will have access to devices per their specialized education plans, and students can still have their devices on them.

"We are going to take care of individuals, students who have concerns and need their phones for things like testing blood sugar, we’re taking care of kids," Lake City High School Principal Deanne Clifford said. "We have common sense. If there’s an emergency, we'll use common sense."

Clifford said she supports the policy, which will start to be enforced Monday.

"I'm in favor of anything that will make kids lift up their heads, pay attention and connect with people," she said.

She said Lake City has been in communication with students and families to answer questions leading up to the implementation. She said parent responses have been positive.

Does the policy have teeth? Clifford said students will receive warnings the first time they are spotted with their phones out. A confiscation will follow, and parents will be asked to pick up their child's phone at the school.

This is not Lake City's first time managing the cellphone situation.

"It was 17 years ago, we had cellphone problems when there were flip phones, so we banned cellphones," Deanne said.

Within two weeks, students adapted and weren't getting into trouble for cellphone-related problems, such as sending inappropriate photos.

Clifford said education surrounding the policy will be ongoing. In two weeks, the school will hold a forum for students to address any issues they have with the process. This emerged from a conversation with senior and ASB President Rowen Lair.

"We want to get a lot of students to come together and talk about their own gripes with it," Rowen said.

He said he thinks the phone policy is too restrictive, and students aren't ready for it.

"The fact that they'll restrict them from 7:35 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. is just crazy," he said, "although I do think the policy comes from a good place in their heart."

Students text each other throughout the day to get updates about activities or make plans for lunch, Rowen said. They check in with parents about rides. Yes, students can use the phones in the office, but this generation is used to texting and communicating via smartphone.

"I am kind of thinking eventually the school board is going to crack and let us have them at lunch and in the hallways," he said. "It is a complicated issue for sure."

Lake City Assistant Principal Bryan Kelly said student wellness is No. 1 on the priority list.

"The data suggests a lot of kids need to unplug," he said. "I think that it would be great to see kids talking to each other and not engaged in their phones."

He said he's looking forward to kids being kids again at school, away from the stress and depression that accompany social media and constant device use.

"It will be nice to block that off and really focus on the education part," he said.

The policy's procedures will be discussed by trustees at 5 p.m. Monday during the school board meeting at Midtown Center Meeting Room, 1505 N. Fifth St.