Danville District 118 parents can now respond to a survey available to them concerning school cell phone policies. Currently, cell phones are required to be kept off and out of site during the school day. Then, if there’s a violation, the students must surrender their phones temporarily or place them in their lockers.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Yacobi says District 118’s Ownership in Education Committee decided to put out this survey due to a very high amount of cell phone violations this school year. Dr. Yacobi says, there are no definite plans to make a change, but they wanted to hear from the parents. And she says some of them want to always be able to reach their kids directly, which can create a conflict with teachers trying to keep the classroom focused.
AUDIO: A lot of our parents truly believe that they should have access to their child at all times during the school day. And you can understand that if your parents feel that day, and your rule is that (the phone) is out of site, and it is not taking any calls, that can be a problem.
Yacobi says the district is certainly equipped to handle things the way schools have for years. If there’s an emergency and a parent must contact their student, they can call the office and have the message relayed to them.
AUDIO: We really truly believe that the school, the classroom environment, is for learning. And we’re going to get some feedback, perhaps, that tells us we need to rethink, or relearn, how we think about communication today.
Parents were made aware of the survey via the district’s auto-dialer system, and it can be found on the District 118 website and Facebook page. They have until April 15th to respond.
