CCSD’s new cellphone pouch rule faces pushback, petition

A new Clark County School District policy requiring students to put their cellphones in non-locking, signal-blocking pouches during class has faced pushback from families, most recently with an online petition drive that gathered 10,000 signatures in three days.

The policy, set to go into effect when school starts Aug. 12, will require students in grades six through 12 to put their phones on airplane mode and inside pouches, according to a Friday news release. The rule is optional for elementary schools.

Specifics of where phones will be kept are up to individual schools. In some cases, students may keep the pouches in their backpacks, in others, they will be in a secure spot inside of the classroom, Associate Superintendent Kevin McPartlin said in a news conference Monday afternoon.

Students will also be required to wear an ID badge for increased security at school, though that component has seemed to have generated less controversy.

“Every minute of instruction is important for student learning, and studies clearly show that cell phones distract students,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Brenda Larsen-Mitchell in the news release.

But the online petition, created by 14-year-old Charlize Leary, who plans to attend CCSD’s Nevada Learning Academy in the fall, criticizes the decision as one that threatens students’ safety and wastes the district’s money.

“If there, God forbid, would be an accident in school, like someone gained access inside, or there was just an emergency, like a fire or something like that, or an earthquake, parents would not have access to contact their kids without calling the office, which in an emergency would be possibly up to even 500 parents at the same time trying to get the office’s attention,” Leary told the Review-Journal.

She also said there have been many times in which she has had to contact her parents while at school about how and when she is getting home. Students may also need to find out if there was a family emergency, she said.

“One day, my great grandfather died while I was in class. How would I have known without access to my phone?” one commenter on the petition wrote.

Leary added that kids who have special learning plans may need their phones more. Those with anxiety disorders, she said, might need to call their parents during the day to calm down or use an app to help with breathing.

The top comment on the petition criticizes the $50,000 expenditure on pouches.

“We urge CCSD to prioritize spending on essential areas such as school maintenance, improving safety measures, and enhancing meal quality,” the comment reads.

The district’s statement said that students would be allowed to get their phones from the pouches in cases of emergencies. McPartlin did not provide an exact definition of an emergency, but did cite examples such as getting phones on the way out of the room in a fire drill, or grabbing them during a potential lockdown.

McPartlin also said that students can access their phones during lunch.

Leary’s petition, created Friday on the change.org website and not limited to students or district residents, surpassed 11,000 signatures by Monday afternoon, with more than 4,000 signing on Monday. In the future, she said, she hopes to host a rally and pick up more as the start of school gets closer. She said she is asking people to send letters to the district.

“I think people have really just come together with this, all of the students and even some of the staff have just really banded together and hope to maybe start a new solution to this problem. I think that that’s really beautiful, to see all of these people coming together for the same cause. and it’s a really good cause, because this is going to help kids’ safety in the future,” Leary said.

CCSD, meanwhile, has remained firm on the policy.

“This is definitely happening,” McPartlin said, adding that they have already purchased the pouches.

He added that many students in focus groups seemed relieved by the new policy.

“There’s this pressure of keeping up with all the social media, and keeping their streaks alive, and keeping track of their friends at all times, and this relief of, ‘alright, I can just relax for a bit,’” McPartlin said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.