Hastings High School has announced enforcement of a policy for cell phone usage for the 2024-2025 school year. The change comes from new legislative requirements that compel schools to enact policies concerning “student’s possession and use of cell phones in school by March 15 2025,” according to the bill.
While District 200 schools already have various cell phone, language in school policy will be enforced in various schools throughout the district including the high school. While many of the policy’s details are not yet settled for the upcoming school year, part of the language of the new high school cell phone policy was sent out to parents:
“Students are prohibited from using cell phones and other electronic communication devices during the instructional day. Students also are prohibited from using a cell phone or other electronic communication device to engage in conduct prohibited by school district policies including, but not limited to, cheating, bullying, harassment, and malicious and sadistic conduct.”
The language further details parameters for searching student’s devices as well as for confiscating them which many have already taken issue with on social media. For searching students’ phones, the school must first suspect that the student has violated a school rule, policy or law by using a cell phone. Only then can the district search the device in a “reasonably related scope to the circumstances justifying the search,” according to the new policy.
These changes stem from the Omnibus Education bill (SF 3567) that was signed by Gov. Tim Waltz on May 17 of this year. The omnibus bill contained various education bills including the much-discussed prohibition on book banning, a prohibition of schools from withholding a diploma because of outstanding student fees, and a requirement that schools adopt a cell phone policy.
According to School Board Chair Carrie Tate, the school board will be discussing the cell phone policy at the Aug. 7 work session. After that: “the board will provide direction for the policy committee to create this policy. This work will begin at their Aug. 8 (policy) committee meeting. Once the policy is created, it will follow our standard three readings (one per monthly Regular Meeting), which will give the public ample time to provide their feedback,” said Tate.
The new policy comes the coattails of the annual student wellness report, a spring 2024 survey of over 1,000 students, parents and teachers across the district. Several of the questions posed to high schoolers related to cell phone usage. Thirty-eight percent of high school respondents said that they were on their cell phone either frequently or constantly, a metric that has dropped 15% since the 2022 survey. At the same time 39% of high school respondents said that social media has a positive impact on their life, fewer than in any previous survey.
The regular monthly meeting of the school board is at 6 p.m. July 31 in the Hastings Middle School.