Portland students will not be allowed to have or use their phones during the school day beginning in the fall, following the passage Tuesday of a bell-to-bell ban by the city’s school board.

The closely watched decision follows a national trend and statewide push to get cellphones out of schools from the start of each day to the end. The board heard support from educators and parents during a public hearing, as well as opposition from a local LGBTQ+ youth organization.

Members approved an amended version of the policy in a unanimous vote with two members absent. The board’s student representatives all voted against it, although their votes don’t count toward the outcome.

In past public hearings, many teachers have testified that policing phone use is one of the greatest challenges of their teaching day, and parents have argued that cellphones have negative mental health impacts on school-age children. However, some school officials have been hesitant about enacting a ban and say current policies are working just fine. Some parents had concerns about safety and communicating with their children. And high school students have been almost universally opposed to the ban, according to administrators.

Reception to the policy at a first reading in May was mixed, with slightly more commenters speaking in support of its passage.

A K-12, bell-to-bell ban has been in consideration for Portland schools since last summer. The school board’s curriculum and policy committee advanced the policy in April, after which the district held seven well-attended stakeholder engagement sessions with students and parents to gather input. The district also conducted a survey of community members following the first hearing in May and received 1,200 responses, according to board Chair Sarah Lentz. She said the board also received several hundred emails about the policy.

District representatives recently visited Morse High School in Bath, where a cellphone ban has been in place since the start of the school year. Administrators there say the policy has led to fewer student suspensions, greater focus and higher teacher morale.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Many educators and parents, like Portland High School teacher Lily Sage, encouraged the board to pass the policy Tuesday night.

“I believe that a phone ban will help students focus better, socialize and detox from the omnipresent screens, at least during the school day,” Sage said. “When we allow phones in students’ pockets or in their bags or anywhere within their reach or view, we are inviting distraction into the classroom, even when they are untouched.”

Casco Bay High School teacher Matt Hosmer said cellphones are designed to be addictive to young people and he worries that his students are unable to focus in class or stay away from phones without a blanket ban.

“Minors should be protected from products that are designed to be addicting,” Hosmer said. 

But several representatives of the LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group Portland Outright turned out against the policy. The organization’s director Osgood said a blanket ban would impact the most marginalized students.

“This policy is, unfortunately, following a troubling trend in local and national politics to police, control and limit the power of young people,” they said. “We worry about the impact on queer students and students of color who are always impacted by bans and criminalization.”

Other organization members described the policy as punitive, worried that it would negatively impact student autonomy and said it would prevent students from developing healthy relationships around technology.

“I am extremely concerned that this current provision will be used to violate the privacy of students at risk of being overly policed,” Portland student and Outright member August Chandler testified. 

BOARD DELIBERATION

Lentz and District 5 Member Sarah Brydon introduced an amended version of the policy. Their revision stipulates that personal electronic devices “shall not be available or accessible to students for the duration of the school day.”

Lentz and Brydon said they simplified the policy in response to community feedback, removing language around search and seizure and discipline. They also broadened the language to allow schools to create policies for special circumstances like when students go off campus or travel between schools. The amendment includes an expanded exception policy that allows a student’s family to submit a phone exception request if they believe access during the school day is needed.

The creation and implementation of rules are up to the administration and individual schools. The district is looking at possibly using magnetically locking pouches that students keep on their person at the high school level.

The board discussed details of language around exceptions, district liability and off-campus trips, and approved several line-item amendments before approving the policy.

Throughout deliberations, student representatives to the board expressed skepticism about the policy, and the four high school student members voted against it.

Portland High School Representative Mina Fitzgerald said her peers are confused about why the board has acted so quickly and prioritized the change over others, and said the district did not have an open mind to student concerns during stakeholder meetings. She said adults often model poor behavior around phone use.

“I do think that at the end of the day, we’ve let phones become very integrated. And so if you wanted to educate around how to develop properly as a person by using phones, then adults themselves have to do the exact same amount of work, if not more work, than any students,” she said. “And I just do not see that effectively happening within the next three months.”