Vice Principal Sara Callies sat for a conversation with The Orbit’s Dane de Block to provide answers to the questions you probably have. We got answers… too many answers. The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Dane de Block: Today marks the first day that Benson’s interim phone policy takes effect. And in preparation, I sat down with Vice Principal Callies to talk about it. One thing I had to ask her was how important she thought a temporary phone policy really was:
Sara Callies: “I think every increment we can make towards getting ourselves used to an environment where it’s not directly handy and in front of us at all times, we’ve all become trained. Adults and teenagers alike to just check it, refer to it all the time for questions you have or quick communication with somebody. As I mentioned earlier, we know that there’s all sorts of data about the negative impacts of that on our brains and our ability to focus on our mental health. But also next year, with it being totally off and away all day, including lunch, that’s a pretty big leap from where we’ve been for the last few years. So whatever we can do to help sort of have an on-ramp onto that, [we should do].”
DdB: I can see where the district is coming from when they decided on a phone ban. Phones in classrooms are definitely an issue, but I feel like the way Benson has been handling it has been good. The number of people I’ve seen on their phones has plummeted, so if people are doing better, what’s to acclimate to?
SC: “I think that the idea with the pouches at the beginning of the year as part of the warning system was that it kept some of the ownership of students’ choices and behaviors in their own hands. Like literally their cell phone could still be in their hands in a pouch. But then how that got implemented became messy between both how students received it and how different teachers were able to implement it in different settings in the building from academic classrooms to shops, et cetera.”
DdB: She also explained that it wasn’t just about getting phone use down. The biggest change between the old policy and the new one, (dubbed “policy 2.0” by Ms. Callies), was the restriction on flex time.
SC: “It’s considered instructional time by the state and by the district. And so it’s just like any other class time. So cell phones would not be allowed during flex time.”
DdB: What I think is most interesting, and that everyone should keep an eye on, is how flex goes. Enforcing a phone ban during flex has the same challenges as enforcing it during lunch: so however the committee decides to enforce flex will probably be how they’ll enforce lunch:
SC: “The cell phone committee is going to keep meeting for the rest of the year to talk through [what enforcement is going to look like] as additional guidance comes from the district. This year for flex time, as always, we have our campus monitors, we have our administration team, and all staff have been directed that it’s the same during flex as it is any other time and so it’s very likely that if students have their phones out in flex time when they’re out in the Commons, they’re gonna have a staff member ask them to give them their phone. And it could be anyone.“
DdB: So you could be waiting in the lunch line, listening to some music, when all of the sudden THE DEAN appears, and confiscates your airpods. Well, that’s only under the district policy, but still. I love that I can quote the vice principal: “IT COULD BE ANYONE.” I guess the only way you can listen to music is by plugging some wired earbuds into your computer, like a cool kid. But is that really the best way forward?
SC: “We have had [conversations] around students who need a break and who have relied on [music] as part of their day. That we do things like grounding strategies, breathing strategies. Maybe they work with their counselor and have like an ability to move around in the room more, or take a quick break in the hallway; just to have a silent moment and that we just be flexible and thoughtful about students who are gonna have a harder time with them.“
DdB: Finally, I had to ask the most important question. In the district policy, they ban “Personal Electronic Devices.” PED’s are defined as “Any device that has the capacity to electronically […] store data.” This would mean the policy bans anything from a basic calculator to a smart fridge. And if the point of the policy is to get people used to the district policy, then shouldn’t they use that definition too?
SC: “We really wanted [the policy] to focus on specifically things that stream data. So if it’s an accessory like Beats or Air Pods or a smartwatch that are streaming data through them that are an accessory to your cell phone, then that counts. A “Personal Electronic Device” is not just an electronic device, “Personal Electronic Device” doesn’t really describe it for us in our current policy. It’s really more about things that are accessories to phones or something that wirelessly connects to something. I think the way we described it was ‘anything that could connect through wifi.’”
SC: “It’s gonna be anything that can be the phone, or is an accessory to the phone. The smartwatch was an interesting one and we spent a lot of time on that because we were like “well, people use them for watches” and you should be able to keep your watch and use your watch to tell the time. Yep, that’s legit. So, you know, that’s a dicey one because we’re hoping that students don’t… All of a sudden, all want to buy smartwatches and then start texting each other and streaming through their smartwatch because then we will have to ban them. So in the policy right now, it says how we will respond to that. It says if you’re using your smartwatch to stream data, then it is a smart device and falls under the policy. If you’re using your smartwatch to tell time, you’re good.”
DdB: Ultimately, the policy is much more coherent than I expected. The official policy may just be a slideshow and a newsletter (when I asked for the official policy that’s what I was provided), but it’s a slideshow with reasonable definitions. And while I made my feelings clear about the district policy, Benson is doing its best with what it has. I think that the Cellphone Committee has made some tough calls. But, I think they made the right ones. Let me end this article the same way Ms. Callies ended our interview: “Good luck to all of us as we move into this next chapter.”
