We have a responsibility to give our kids an environment most favorable to their social and academic development. What they need today is a cell phone free school. No other generation has had to face the trials of growing up in a world where smartphones and social media are everywhere. As caregivers, we have to navigate our children’s access to new technologies at home. At school we must make a collective choice. The Rondout Valley Central School board has no official policy on cell phones, leaving the task of managing these intrusive devices to teachers. The result is that most kids carry their phones on them throughout the day, a reality that handicaps students and burdens teachers. As parents of a pre-teen, we are calling on the school board to protect the children in our district by creating a distraction-free learning environment in which cell phones are not allowed.

Smartphones and social media apps are designed to capture our attention and keep it as long as possible. Today over 90% of Americans own a smartphone and a growing majority admit to feeling addicted. Younger brains that have not fully developed the ability to control impulses and delay gratification are far less powerful to resist the endless stream of notifications, likes, comments, and entertainment. Imagine trying to study for a test, write a paper, or solve a challenging math problem, tasks that require uninterrupted attention, while pulled in the direction of your phone to check an update, or to forget your worries and play video games. Imagine being a teacher with the responsibility to keep phones out of sight during class. It is an uphill battle that we don’t want our teachers and kids engaged in.

In his carefully researched bestseller The Anxious Generation, author Jonathan Haidt plots the rise of smartphone use with the surge in adolescent mental illness we now face. The trend started before the COVID pandemic, with the proliferation of smartphones in 2012, and continues to worsen, marked by an alarming increase in rates of depression and eating disorders, substance abuse, schizophrenia, and a two-and-a-half fold spike in teen suicides.

Last spring, parents of Rondout Intermediate School fifth graders were alerted by the principal of an increase in cyberbullying on social media, cruel and insulting text messages, and false accusations leveled at classmates. It was an appeal to parents to be vigilant and establish boundaries around internet and social media use. The school day is not the time for administrators to be managing the fallout of social media’s corrosive influence on our communication habits. Unfortunately, until the district implements a research-based, forward-looking policy on cell phones, this type of behavior is hard to prevent.

Parents in the community have actively voiced their concerns through letters and at board meetings throughout the Fall season. Mounting evidence about the advantage of a distraction-free learning environment has given courage to school administrators and elected representatives from Oregon and Florida, to nearby Kingston N.Y., to follow their intuition and impose a ban on cell phones during school hours. They are reporting a renewed culture of interpersonal engagement and an enhanced capacity among students to get their work done. We should follow their lead so that Rondout students can benefit socially and academically from a more engaged and dynamic school culture.

Jay & Sheila Galione

Stone Ridge