By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — As the Board of Education prepares to hold a special meeting next week to gather public feedback on a proposal to make Staples High School cellphone-free, the Staples PTA Executive Board has a suggestion.

“The PTA Exec Board requests that a committee be formed to conduct a thoughtful analysis of the pros and cons of a bell-to-bell ban at Staples,” Aileen Brill, an executive board member, told Thursday’s school board meeting at Staples High School.

Brill said a committee of stakeholders could engage in an analysis specific to Staples that would consider all the workarounds and modifications that would need to be implemented in both curriculum and student life, along with the costs, if a ban is imposed.

Superintendent advocates for ban

A ban on students’ use of cellphones during the class day has been explored since last year at the suggestion of Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice. 

The special meeting to gather feedback is set for 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at Coleytown Middle School, 255 North Ave.

Cellphones are now banned in the town’s elementary schools and must be kept in lockers at middle schools, so the proposed blanket ban would primarily affect the high school

PTA Executive Board members wrote a letter to the board last month saying they would support a ban on cellphones during class time, but do not support a full-day ban.

Brill said state guidelines suggest that cellphone policies be less restrictive as students get older and reach high school, where they may be developmentally ready to control excessive use and understand responsibilities regarding technology.

What have other school districts done?

Brill said that in Greenwich and Darien, which also reviewed cellphone policies this year, the districts formed committees to explore the issue. The committees included school administrators, teachers, parents and students.

Greenwich public schools, which in September, implemented a policy requiring cellphones be “off and away” during instructional times, recently determined there were times when phone use was appropriate for instructional purposes, according to published reports.

In January, the Darien school district proposed a new policy prohibiting cellphone use for students through the 11th grade. The bell-to-bell ban will not apply to seniors outside the classroom.

“What is clear is that both Darien and Greenwich invested the time and resources to conduct a comprehensive study of their schools and they arrived at policies that they concluded were best for their students,” said Brill. 

“We believe that Staples students deserve the same level of diligence in addressing the issue,” she added.

At its last meeting, the board heard Staples freshman Kirthana Gowthaman question whether the benefits of a cellphone ban would outweigh the costs. She argued a ban would not be preparing students for the real world and won’t keep students from accessing social media in other ways during the school day.

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.