By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The proposed bell-to-bell ban on students’ cellphone use at Staples High School, controversial since it was proposed nearly a year ago by Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice, got a warm reception at a community forum Tuesday.

Only one person who spoke questioned the idea at the special Board of Education meeting devoted to discussing the proposal.

“My children will never be without their phones at school,” declared Jonathan Alloy. After the gathering at Coleytown Middle School, however, Alloy clarified his remarks, telling the Westport Journal he does not oppose prohibiting students’ use of phones during the class day, but does not want his children’s phones taken away.

Velma Heller, the forum moderator, had advised the audience of about 60 that discussion of all views was welcome, and that opposing opinions shouldn’t be shut down by proponents of the ban.

Opponents did not speak out

Scarice said after the event that he was slightly disappointed that a broader array of views was not heard, including from opponents of the idea.

“There were more out there who were reluctant to come up” to speak, he said, including parents concerned about how the ban would be enforced and others who do not favor it at all.

The superintendent said he has received many emails from parents critical of the ban.

But even if more negative opinions had been expressed at Tuesday’s meeting, Scarice said “that wouldn’t change my mind” about implementing the ban at Staples at the start of the new academic year. Cellphones are already banned in Westport’s elementary schools, restricted to lockers or backpacks at the middle schools, and off-limits during class periods at the high school, but school officials have said enforcing the policy is a challenge.

Scarice has said he was encouraged to pursue the cellphone ban at Staples after a February visit to Wilton High School to assess how a recently implemented prohibition on phones there has worked out.

Staples PTA leaders not on board with ban

The Staples High School PTA executive board has opposed a blanket ban on phones, however. In a recent letter to the Board of Education, PTA leaders said phones are a useful academic tool, and questioned whether the cost of buying Yondr pouches — used by many schools to lock away students’ electronic devices during the class day — for all Staples is the best use of school district money.

Staples PTA leaders last week suggested that before the high school’s policies on phones and personal electronic devices are changed, that a committee of stakeholders be established to thoroughly analyze a bell-to-bell ban.

Supporters say phones are distraction, harmful

But parents attending Tuesday’s community forum disagreed. 

Speaker after speaker pleaded with the school board to impose a comprehensive ban that would prohibit phones in a student’s possession from the start of the school day to the end.

Several members of the group “OK to Delay,” who favor keeping cellphones away from children until they are in middle school or older, spoke in support of the ban.  

They included Rebecca Zipkin, who said the group has collected 450 signatures in support of the ban from Westport parents of children in elementary, middle and high schools.

Alexandra Cohen, another member of “OK to Delay,” said that research shows that when schools remove phones, “students are less anxious and more focused.”  When phones are allowed in school, “academic skills wither,” she said.

Staples math teacher Margaret Gomez said that there are many reasons from a teacher’s perspective that phones should be banned during the entire class day.  “No one is talking to each other … the pull [of the phones] is real,” she said. “The time we spend taking away their phones is enormous, and still they fight us.”

“I was amazed that seven percent of students said they were for [a phone ban],” she said, citing a district survey that also showed that 70 percent of faculty strongly support a ban as well as 59 percent of parents.

Throughout the evening, teachers, social workers, psychologists and school administrators — all parents of children in Westport schools — spoke in favor of the proposed ban. Some favor using Yondr pouches to lock way students’ phones at the beginning of the school day, but others said that teens can figure out how to break into the bags to get their phones. 

Psychologist Christine Fornabia said cellphone use can damage teens’ mental health. Phones are used for bullying, to pass around hurtful photos and to start arguments with peers, she said. “These kids are really victims. Their phones are doing harm.”

Several speakers volunteered to form a committee that could work with the school district to formulate a specific plan on how to implement a phone ban at Staples. 

“Let’s implement something without delay,” said Barrie Rosen. “We’ve delayed long enough for a cellphone-free environment. Now is the time for action.”

The forum “gave the community an opportunity for parent input,” Scarice said after the meeting. The final presentation on the proposed cellphone ban will be made to the Board of Education at its May 15 meeting, when the board will likely vote on the proposal, he said.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.