By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Already sold on the idea of banning cellphones at schools districtwide, Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice helped solidify his stance with a visit last week to Wilton High School, where a blanket prohibition is in place.

Flanked by a contingent of faculty, administrators, a parent and journalists from Inklings, Staples High School’s student newspaper, Scarice called the four hours spent at the neighboring high school a great visit.

“I’m still processing this,” Scarice told the Board of Education during the announcement portion of its meeting in the Staples High cafeteria last Thursday. “To allow about a dozen visitors to come in your school and just say talk to anybody, walk into any classroom … we really gained an interesting insight into what they have done there.”

Wilton instituted its cellphone ban last fall. Scarice broached the idea of doing the same thing at Staples last spring, but since then has still been studying the idea.

Students’ use of cellphones is already banned at Westport’s elementary and middle schools.

Imposing a ban at Staples, where cellphone use is allowed outside the classroom, is seen as trickier, not only because of opposition from students and some parents, but because hand-held electronic devices are regularly used as cameras, measuring instruments and encyclopedias as part of instruction.

In the fall, Scarice issued a memo indicating he had reached out to faculty and was still reviewing research on the topic.

Last month, the district hosted a former social media strategist to talk about the addictive and distracting impact of social media platforms on individuals, particularly children.

Next, Scarice is planning a town hall event to collect parent input and feedback.

The visit to Wilton High, Scarice said was to assess, as realistically as possible, the impact of a ban.

Wilton Supt. of Schools Kevin Smith told the Westport Journal in an email that his school district implemented its cellphone-free policy in November.

Smith added that Westport educators are the first district to come see the ban in action.

“People knew we were there,” Scarice said of the visit. “We had visitor badges.”

Still the group was allowed full access to hallways, classrooms, the cafeteria and library.

Arrival time was observed. Interviews were conducted.

Scarice said Inklings reporters grilled just about everybody. “They were spectacular,” he said.

A veteran teacher of 25 years was interviewed. “Her quote was that it was the most impactful policy change of her entire career,” Scarice told the Westport board. The superintendent said the teacher was not an outlier, but definitely the most emphatic.

“I am sure there are other teachers — it is a building of 1,200 kids — who were maybe not as impressed by [the ban], maybe who aren’t even in agreement with it,” the superintendent said.

But from what Scarice could tell, the culture of the building was transformed by the phone ban. He said the visitors did not see a cellphone anywhere in the building during their tour.

He described the atmosphere in the Wilton High cafeteria as though in a 1987 time warp. “Every kid was at a round table and they were sitting and talking and having like a social moment,” he said.

A few students were on laptops, which is permissible. Some were playing card games. A preponderance of the students were just socializing, the board was told.

Wilton, like a number of other districts that have instituted bans on hand-held technology, have invested in Yondr pouches to keep student phones inactive during the school day. The district bought 2,300 pouches, costing $1,800.

With Yondr, a student keeps their phone in a pouch that is locked within the phone-free zone. 

Scarice told the school board that he will return in the spring for further discussion of a phone ban after a series of town halls with parents and students.

As Westport research continues, the state Board of Education, just before the start of this school year, recommended that districts institute policies to restrict access to cellphones during the school day.

Gov. Ned Lamont and some state lawmakers also support a ban. At least one bill that would require school boards to adopt policies limiting cellphone use by students statewide has been introduced in the current legislative session.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.