GUILDERLAND — When the rural Schoharie school district wanted to launch a ban on smart devices, it faced stiff community opposition.

“You can't do this, it’s not your right. Who are you?” said Schoharie Superintendent David Blanchard, recalling the public reaction as “a roomful of people screaming at me … it was wicked hard …. I mean, it was three hours of a public forum that was just bloodied.”

Guilderland held a public forum on Monday, which included Blanchard, that was anything but bloodied.

Seven panelists — Blanchard and a Schoharie student, a Guilderland police officer, a psychologist, teachers from Guilderland’s middle and high schools, and a high school administrator — shared their views, almost all of them favorable, on what a ban would mean for Guilderland.

There was time at the end of the hour-and-a-half long session for just one question from the audience. That was on what the ban would cost.

Superintendent Marie Wiles had told the school board in October that Guilderland will consider a ban on electronic devices as part of developing its budget for the 2025-26 school year. The cost of implementing the system, which would include pouches for students to put their devices in, would be about $110,000.

Guilderland’s forum, billed as a panel on a “distraction-free school environment,” was held the same day that New York State United teachers held a press conference at the capitol in Albany, calling on the governor and legislature to ban cell-phone use during the school day statewide.

After Kathy Hochul had started her “listening tour” on the issue in Guilderland last July, Wiles had told The Enterprise, 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.’”

Wiles said at the start of Monday’s forum, “We believe as we always do here in Guilderland how important it is to help our community understand lots of sides of the issues where we’re trying to make an important decision.”

She said the district is launching an online ThoughtExchanges so parents and staff can share their ideas on the forum as well as their experiences. The forum can be watched through the district’s website.

Schoharie success

Blanchard said his teachers and administrators were “fighting a losing battle” trying to enforce the district’s policy of no cell phones in classrooms. A long-time math teacher told him she would quit if something wasn’t done about it.

A Schoharie team visited Chicopee High School in Massachusetts that uses Yondr pouches to sequester students’ smart devices during the school day.

“We were like, this is amazing. This is transformation,” said Blanchard.

He said of Schoharie, “We just needed a tool.”

Three years ago, his district implemented the ban, using Yondr pouches. “It was just a magical moment …,” said Blanchard. “Our battle over cell phones went away, and it happened on day one.”

Since then, he said, about 30 schools have visited Schoharie, including Guilderland’s neighbor, Bethlehem, to see the ban in action.

Other than the end of battles, Blanchard said school counselors noted two differences. More students have signed up for electives since they can’t use their phones during study halls.

And, students are now learning to work out problems. “Kids were using their phones to resolve conflict or to reduce their anxiety,” said Blanchard, giving this example: “So, I’m anxious; this is hard; text Mom — and that’s not the answer.”

He also cited examples where Schoharie students had been at outside venues, like seeing a musical at Proctors with students from other schools. And, while the students from other schools were on their phones during the performance, the Schoharie students, who had access to their phones, were not using them.

Blanchard’s philosophy is that “kids thrive when given structure. They thrive when they know expectations are high and we maintain those expectations.”

The poverty level of Schoharie’s secondary students is around 50 percent, he said, so “it’s really important for us to maintain very high expectations.”

His students need to understand that, when they leave Schoharie and don’t have the same level of protection, that “society has rules.”

Blanchard went on to quote what might be a school slogan, “It’s collective …”

He then turned to the student sitting beside him to finish the phrase.

“It’s collective protection and not collective punishment,” she said.

“Thank you, yes,” said Blanchard. “So we have collective protection in Schoharie and that leads to better academic scores.”

The student Blanchard turned to was Jax Sherer.

Sherer, a Schoharie senior, explained early in the forum that she had moved to the district as a junior. She noted that, at the school she’d come from, kids didn’t talk to each other during their lunch period since they were on their phones.

“Kids were DoorDash-ing Taco Bell to their calculus class; it was a nightmare,” she said.

Sherer did not like the idea of a ban until she experienced it. “I did a total 180,” she said. “My mind was changed because I was scared to be in this new school where I didn’t know anyone, but when we disconnect from our phones, we connect with each other.”

Sherer also said her attention span has “drastically improved” because of the ban.

Before the ban, even if her phone had been in a basket on the teacher’s desk, “I had a part of my brain that was just constantly dedicated to monitoring that phone.”

“I lost focus,” she said. So, having her phone out of sight “was just a huge relief for me,” said Sherer.

She concluded by saying, “It’s important to talk to kids about this because that’s who it’s affecting and it’s important to show them it’s not collective punishment; it is collective protection.”

She conceded, “You’re not going to get every single kid on board before you go through with it.”

Sherer gave, as an example of the worth of adult supervision, a parent asking his child to put on a coat because it is cold outside. She described refusing because it would crush her outfit or be itchy.

“And then I go outside and it’s freezing cold and I’m so glad my dad made me bring the jacket even if I don’t say it out loud," said Sherer.

At Guilderland

At Farnsworth Middle School, social studies teacher Jamie Mullins said, cell-phone restrictions this year have caused “a huge culture shift.”

She used to observe students in the cafeteria with headphones on. “Everyone is in your own little pod and you could not have a conversation where now it is completely device-free; you’re not even bringing your Chromebook in there — and it’s loud.”

Mullins said the team she works with at Farnsworth had been “pioneers of let’s let them have it; let’s teach them responsible use … And last year, we just really had to have this shift of our minds. They just might not be ready. It might be doing more harm than it is good to let them have it in class.”

Farnsworth, she said, now has a three-step process for a student who is using a cell phone: “The first time, you get a warning; the second time, it gets confiscated; the third time, your parent has to come and pick it up.”

Mullins said there had been only a handful of students who reached the third step. “Everybody has been on board,” she said.

Erin Whalen, who teaches English at the high school, said when she surveyed her students about the notifications they received on their phones during an 85-minute class period, the total was 350 to 400 notifications collectively

“So you always feel like you’re losing a student,” she said.

Whalen said she has also surveyed her students on their daily use of screen time. “I literally have students whose screen time is 12 hours a day,” she said.

Whalen also said, “We’ve seen a decline in stamina overall.”

The instant gratification offered by cell phones, she said, has hastened the decline of the work ethic.

“They want to get their assignments done,” Whalen said of her students. “And they want to take out the phone … to see what they’ve missed out on.”

Although some students are good at managing their phone habits, Whalen said lack of attention span has increased tenfold.

Whalen also said, “I had a student just tell me she gets all her news from TikTok … And I was like, I wonder how much misinformation is there.”

Since she wants her students to use outside references, including social-media platforms, Whalen said, “It’s a double-edged sword for me.”

Whalen went on to describe an assignment where her students had to consult five sources and find five facts from each source.

“You thought I was asking for their first born,” she said.

Teachers at the high school have discretion within their own classroom on how students use phones, Whalen said.

“It’s becoming more of an issue,” she said. “It was really good in the beginning of the year but now I’m fighting it again where they’re trying to take them out … to sneak access,”

On trips to the bathroom, she said, “they’re taking off the case and putting it like the phone’s [been left] behind …They’re so clever …They’re always looking for that work-around.”

Whalen concluded by saying a cell-phone ban should be considered, “but I also know that our students want to have a voice in this.”

Ann-Marie Holmes, an assistant principal at the high school, said, “Nine out of 10 of issues that come to our offices stem from social media from the phones. There’s very rarely a conflict that is verbal anymore.”

She went on, “We have physical conflict in our building and, within a matter of seconds, that video and humiliation is already posted and it’s going around.”

Holmes said of students, “They don’t know how to resolve whatever’s in their heart and their mind. And then they’re just spewing out there and we’re talking really serious comments, derogatory statements, harmful statements that perpetuates into other self-loathing feelings.”

She also said of students, “They’re fearful.”

She went on, “It’s scary when you’re connected to something and that becomes who you are and your identity, and our students have been growing up with this.”

Holmes said that, even once administrators have resolved an issue, sometimes weeks or even years later, “It’s recirculated; it’s become viral again. And that child is being victimized again from something that was an oops ….”

Holmes, who has five kids in the district, said she has “device times at home and that has been a challenge, but our family values that.

“So I think our school can help support our families and our children; we can do this. I think the greater good is really important right now.”

Police view

Matthew Hanzlik, with the Guilderland Police, said, “Social-media bullying is definitely a constant source of our complaints.” This is true with the work of school resource officers — Guilderland has one SRO stationed in the high school and another at the middle school — as well as “out in our community with our patrol officers.”

Students report on kids “posting mean things,” he said, adding, “These students are very creative; they’ll use social media to harass and cyberbully others. Sometimes they’ll add pictures without names … They’ll post photos of students walking down the hallway and put different words to the picture, like ‘looser,’ or, ‘look at that outfit’ just to get a rise and get attention.”

Hanzlik went on, “Kids get added to group chats and some of them intentionally are left out so they can talk about them. That’s isolation and they do that to target certain people to get a reaction out of certain kids.

“Sometimes this can lead children into making statements that result in them getting in trouble. They feel like they have to defend themselves.”

Asked about parents who are worried that, if cell phones are banned, they will not be able to reach their children during a school emergency, Hanzlik said, “Every classroom has a phone.”

If a family needs to reach their child for an emergency, he said, they would call the school and the message would be immediately relayed.

He also noted that students are on their Chromebooks throughout the school day and have access to Gmail and Googlechat.

And, Hanzlik said, if a child has an emergency, the school would reach out to the family immediately.

If there is a school-wide emergency, like a bomb threat, Hanzlik said, “We train our kids to follow the directives of the adults.”

He conceded, “Kids tend to go to their phones because that’s what they know. They want to take video; they want to post things on social media.”

But, he said, “By doing so, they’re losing that situational awareness. They’re not aware of everything that’s happening around them.”

Hanzlik went on, “Another big problem when we’re responding to major incidents, the phones from the children are going to tie up the networks.”

This could mean that first responders couldn’t use their own phones or in-car cameras or computers, he said.

“So we might not get the information that we need or be able to send out information that other people will need,” said Hanzlik. “It’s just going to overload the system.”

Psychologist’s view

Laura Assaf, a licensed and certified school psychologist, said, in her 25-year career, she has not before seen the widespread stress and anxiety she sees in kids today, that they are mentally and physically more unhealthy.

Sleep patterns are disrupted by cell phones, she said, which creates irritability and mood issues.

Children are not engaging in healthy eating or exercise habits “and they’re not going outside,” she said. “These are all things that regulate the sleep-wake cycle.”

Physiological research on trauma, Assaf said, shows that, when the brain is flooded with cortisol from stress, it changes neural pathways.

“We have to remember the frontal lobe, which is the center of judgment and decision-making for our kiddos, it’s not fully developed until our late 20s.”

These days, she said, it is difficult to diagnose attention disorders since “everyone is distracted.”

Assaf noted, too, that apps are designed to be addictive. “You can access whatever it is you need to feel good with your likes and the comments … We are seeking that dopamine rush.”

Assaf, who specializes in the differential diagnoses of neurodevelopmental conditions, said it was heartbreaking to do evaluations and discover “we have babies who have a swiping finger but don’t have a pincer grasp.”

The pincer grasp, which usually develops in babies by the time they are 10 months old, is the ability to hold something between the thumb and first finger.

Assaf said that most people in education understand the concept of executive functions like planning, organization, sequence, impulse control, and emotional regulation.

“So we are teaching how to avoid distraction, how to avoid addiction, how to be grounded, how to be present in the moment, and how to be mindful.”

Assaf also said that “wonderful, well-intentioned parents” will back down on cell-phone restrictions because “their kids are having a panic attack or putting up a fight.”

Therefore, said Assaf, to have a school district restrict devices “would make a powerful shift in the right direction, in my humble opinion.”