GUILDERLAND — As kids here head back to school this fall, banning smartphones is being discussed by school leaders.

Guilderland School Board members agreed at their Aug. 13 meeting that the matter should be addressed.

This summer, Governor Kathy Hochul had launched her statewide listening tour on banning smartphones at Guilderland High School.

“I am the first mom Governor of New York,” said Hochul at a press conference after the Guilderland confab. “I’m hardwired to worry about our children and their safety, of course. But it’s also impossible to ignore the reality that this generation more than others is being subjected to distractions that never existed the way they are now.”

Superintendent Marie Wiles had told The Enterprise earlier, when asked about the possibility of a statewide ban on smartphones in schools, “I would prefer that we arrive at a decision like we arrive at most decisions, which is by engaging our community, getting feedback, providing information and insight, and then moving forward rather than, ‘Well, we have to do it.’”

The president of New York State United Teachers, Melinda Person, attended the governor's session, and the August school board meeting opened with a letter from Person being read by the board’s president, Blanca Gonzalez-Parker.

Person, writing as the mother of four children in the district, called for a full ban of student use of smartphones “with reasonable exceptions on their use for instructional purposes and/or health and safety.”

“For students,” Person wrote of smartphone use, “it has sparked a mental health crisis, fractured attention spans and contributed to a wave of learning and social emotional deficiencies.”

She cited research from Common Sense Media that 97 percent of students use cellphones during the school day; from the surgeon general that over three hours per day on social media doubles the risk of poor mental health including symptoms of depression and anxiety; and from an unnamed source that students not using smartphones in class have higher test scores.

Person went on to cite 11 “tangible benefits” of a ban, including fewer distractions, less cyberbullying, fewer discipline problems, better engagement, better attendance, less cheating, and less stress.

Guilderland’s current policy is that students should not use phones during instructional times. They can use them while passing between classes, in study halls, and on lunch breaks.

Wiles, on Aug. 13, gave the board a brief description of the meeting Hochul held on July 15 with local educators, which included David Blanchard, the superintendent of the Schoharie schools, where all electronic devices — including smartphones, smartwatches, and earbuds — have been banned.

Wiles said that, when she met with Gonzalez-Parker and the board’s vice president, Kelly Person, who is married to Melinda Person, to discuss the Aug. 13 meeting agenda, “We thought this might be an opportunity to at least launch a conversation about smartphones and some initial feelings about their role or lack thereof within or school buildings.”

Board member Nina Kaplan, a social studies teacher, said a ban would “help to bring the students back to where they need to be focused.”

She added, “There really doesn’t seem to be a way to help students develop socially and academically while their phones are still there.”

Later in the discussion, she asserted, “The phones are actually causing a situation in the brains of children that are negating development.”

She said, too, “There’s also an equity issue because not all students have phones …. So I think we also have to look into that as well, as students being outcast.”

“Even for students who have them, they have to have the right model,” said Blanca Gonzalez-Parker. “There’s like this caste system.”

“It’s pretty clear we need to do something,” said board member Gloria Towle-Hilt, a retired middle-school teacher. She went on, “This would be, I feel, our number-one priority at this point, because every day that goes by is more hours that our kids are being affected by it.”

Board member Rebecca Butterfield, a pediatrician, said, while she totally agreed about the mental-health crisis, especially for middle-school students, she wanted more feedback from stakeholders about high school students.

“Part of our mission is to make students future-ready,” Butterfield said, “and cell phones are part of that. They will be using cell phones in their lives.”

She went on, “We have to kind of have an open mind about the developmental stages of adolescence.”

Butterfield asked Wiles if the ban in Schoharie had led to discipline issues with kids trying to sneak use of their phones.

Wiles said of initial objections in both Schoharie and Bethlehem, another district that has banned smartphones, “Once people were used to it, it really did go away.”

“Both of those districts purchased magnetic devices called Yondr pouches,” she said, that make the ban enforceable. The students’ devices are placed in the pouches for the duration of the school day. When students leave school at the end of the day, a station at the door reactivates their devices.

The district budget would have to include funds for the pouches, Wiles noted.

Wiles also said that, at both Schoharie and Bethlehem, staff are also prohibited from using their smartphones during the school day.

“And that, I think, would be tough,” said Wiles, adding, “I, for one, will hand mine over in a heartbeat.”

“Did they do any kind of survey with the community before they put these bans on?” asked board member Tara Molloy-Grocki, a recently retired elementary-school teacher.

Wiles said that Schoharie had held a forum bringing together “mental-health providers, law enforcement, and others to talk through what their plan was and to address some of the concerns.”

Molloy-Grocki said she’d hate to see phones banned for academic use. “The whole ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’ kind of thing,” she said.

Board member Katie DiPierro, a teacher, said she’d like the high school teachers and administrators to weigh in. She said there had been attempts at the middle school to teach responsible technology use.

“But as more and more social media increases, I think that challenge becomes harder and harder,” she said.

“Whatever we can do to help our students maneuver through life, with and without cell phones, is important,” said board member Judy Slack, a retired teacher and teaching assistant.

“My biggest concern would be implementation and discipline,” said board member Kimberly Blasiak, who worried that teachers would be burdened by enforcing the ban.

“I’d really like to have a public forum and get more information, especially from the high school,” she said.

“I don’t think you can deny the research ….,” said Kelly Person. “If implemented properly with the right leadership and guidance and support given to our staff and our administration and our teachers, then it would be a successful program.”

Despite the “bumpy road” to a ban, she added, “I think a majority of people will be in support of it.”

After each board member had expressed her views, Gonzalez-Parker asked the superintendent if it made sense to form a committee.

“I don’t think we need a committee …,” said Wiles. “Every time we make a big decision here in Guilderland, we are always very conscientious about gaining input from our stakeholders because you always learn something … There may be worries or concerns that we haven’t thought of tonight that our community will have.”

She suggested a ThoughtExchange, which is an online survey, to gauge community and staff opinions and perhaps gathering data from students during their homeroom periods.

“We need an opportunity … to let people talk and listen and hear perspectives,” she said.

Wiles suggested hosting a forum with a panel that community members could ask questions of.

She gave an example of parents being nervous “in this age of lockdowns” with “the potential for very terrible things to happen in schools and wanting desperately that their child has a cell phone so they could reach him or her.

“And law enforcement will say that having that phone could put you in more jeopardy.” With 1,500 youngsters on their phones, Wiles said, “it could impede law-enforcement’s efforts to come here and do what has to be done.”

She concluded, “But it’s much more powerful coming from the chief of the Guilderland Police, who knows what it’s all about.”

Wiles suggested also inviting the superintendents of the Bethlehem and Schoharie districts to talk about their experiences.

In the end, Wiles said, she would work with the district’s leadership team to put together a plan “to engage the community in relatively short order.”