By rssfeeds-admin “This shouldn’t be a surprise. This was a commonsense policy that was well overdue,” said Patrick Kelly with the Palmetto State Teachers Association.
A new survey from the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) showed more than 90% of teachers who participated in the survey said students were focusing more on instruction since the program was put in place.
Dr. Vann Holden, Chief Research Officer with the SCDE, said the initial findings are promising.
“Their students are able to focus on learning during the school day,” he said. “They also perceived that they’re less likely to see, other specific behaviors as student conduct issues at their school.”
Dena R. Crews, President of the South Carolina Education Association agreed, adding that students spent more time on tasks and educators have seen less disruptions in the classroom.
“The disrespect of teachers, so whether it was students texting things back and forth about teachers, even the disrespect of teachers has gone down just with their cell phone policy,” Crews continued.
While every school’s cell phone policy varies, concerns regarding students’ safety persisted.
“God forbid if there was an emergency, they could pull it out,” Kelly said. “Now, I’m going to tell you as a teacher that they’re actually less safe if they pull out that cell phone, and local law enforcement will tell you the same thing.”
State resident Billy Routh said the policy makes perfect sense.
“I don’t know why students can’t just put their phone in a box in front of the classroom and pick it up on the way out the door,” he said. “The phone is still there if they need it for an emergency, but they’re not going to be distracted by the cell phone during instruction time.”
Dr. Holden said to expect more information regarding the survey in the next few weeks.
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