KOA Headlines
11 22 24 Boulder School's Dr Rob Anderson on cell phone ban for High school students
But there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Member FDIC. If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee maybe? A candle? Or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays! The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre-based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TV, and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming! New cell phone regulations will be going into effect for Boulder Valley School District's schools beginning in January. The new policy will prohibit high school students from using their cell phones during the entire school day. The old rules, Boulder High Schoolers, were allowed to use their phones and buildings when they were not in class. Now the school district board has voted in favor of the bell-to-bell cell phone ban this week. Boulder Valley School Superintendent Rob Anderson joins us now in the KOA common-speared health hotline. Superintendent, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me, Marty and Gita. I want to just start by saying this. I know you're just implementing and enacting the policy that's voted on by the school board, but as an educator in your space, do you feel that phones have a negative effect in the learning environment? You know, Marty, the emerging research on this is really clear, that cell phones, social media, they're having a negative impact on the mental health of our students. And our school board and our community care deeply about that, and that's why this policy is being enacted. Superintendent, what would you say to those parents who are concerned about emergency situations or the need to contact their students while they're in school? We've been connecting with our community over the past several months, have done some surveys, and we know and understand that there are concerns that are out there. Over the course of the next month, I'll be meeting with teacher leaders, with school leaders, to figure out the best ways to implement this policy to take those things into consideration. Is there any data or evidence to show that whether or not they have the phones on them or they don't, that they're any more or less safe with getting information out? Heaven forbid if there's a school incursion or a shooting? I do think that when we speak to the emergency officials in our community and other communities that there is actually danger in students having cell phones going off when you have a situation that's dangerous, we call that a secure protocol. You actually want kids away, lights off, secured in locked classrooms, and cell phones off. And so, to the extent that students need to be on their phones during those events, we actually think that that could put them in danger. How will this policy be implemented? What types of disciplinary actions could happen if the students break the rules? Because I bet you know, as a superintendent, students can get pretty clever in ways of trying to hide their phones and still keep texting. Gina, you're absolutely right, and I would just want to be really clear. This isn't about implementing a set of rules and punishing students who break those rules. This is really about changing the culture in our community, in our school district and in our community at large, and we'll be working with teacher leaders, with our school leaders on figuring out what are the reasonable ways that we can begin to enforce this policy to change that culture. So are you actually going to confiscate the phones, or like they do sometimes at concerts and put them away until they're out of class or out of school, or will they have them on their person, but they'll be required to have them powered off? You know, I think that those are the details that we're going to have to work out. I think that there are options where you can purchase pouches, and some of the school districts in Colorado have done that already, where kids have to have them on them locked in a pouch. Other places, they're in lockers, other places, they keep them on them, and they just aren't allowed to be out. And so I think that we're going to be considering all these options as we develop our implementation plan over the next month. Superintendent Anderson, have you heard from some students who actually are in favor of this policy change? Yeah, I do think that philosophically a lot of most folks are with us. I think that even our students know and understand that their social media, the addiction, the addictive nature of social media, and being on their phones isn't good for them. I think that people are just wanting to know how we're going to do this, and so that's where we're going to be working hard doing a lot of listening, collaborating as we figure out how we implement this policy in a way that, again, shifts the culture in our community. Kind of a tangent, but since you mentioned the mental health piece of the phones and how they can be disruptive in the classroom, is there another side to this as well, where a lot of times the young people are on their phones, they're filming what's going on in the classroom, and teachers can't teach or do the things they need to do, and be sometimes the disciplinarian that isn't always, from students' perspective, great. Is this another way of trying to keep control of the classroom a little bit, too, to have a better learning environment? I don't know that that's been an issue in our school district. Again, I think that the issue that's come forth is the negative impact that cell phones social media have had on kids' abilities to not only concentrate in class on their mental health. You know, really, if we do this well, we hope that kids are doing more face-to-face peer interactions, are leaving behind some of the stressors that can occur when you're constantly trying to check updates on your social media apps, looking for likes. We think that's unhealthy for our kids, and that's the reason that this policy is going into effect. Boulder Valley Schools Superintendent Rob Anderson, thank you so much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Appreciate you both. Thank you. But there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Remember FDIC. If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end, a few cups of coffee maybe, a candle, or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world, go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale so it won't last long, Washington Post.com/bf24. It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre-based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs, and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming!