The East Providence School Committee voted 3-1 during their Oct. 20 meeting to approve the second and final passage of an amended policy establishing consequences for students who are caught using cell phones during school hours.

The change of significance approved within the policy involves an amendment to how the district will employ the use of magnetic Yondr pouches that were purchased back in August to comply with a new state law that requires a “bell-to-bell” policy for keeping students’ cell phones out of their hands throughout the whole school day.

During the initial conversation on the issue over the summer, Yondr pouches were presented by the administration as the intended solution to be utilized within all secondary schools by all students through the entire school day, as is already being done in the Bristol-Warren and Barrington school districts.

This approach, however, led to significant disagreements among the school committee and concerns from parents, largely over being unable to contact their children in the event of an emergency.

The amended policy, as a result, will only utilize Yondr pounches in a punitive capacity within the policy.

Per the policy document, cell phones must be off and out of sight during the school day, whether in a backpack, locker, or classroom storage door pocket (as is currently utilized at the high school). Violation of that policy will elicit four levels of response.

For a first offense, the device will be confiscated or put into a Yondr pouch for the remainder of the school day, and a parent/guardian would be notified. A second offense will add a detention to the punishment, as well as a mandatory parent/guardian conference with the school. A third offense will tack on a five-day required use of the Yondr pouch, plus a mandatory administrative meeting with a parent/guardian. Fourth and subsequent offenses will mandate a 30-day use of the Yondr pouch (scaling up to as many days as the entire remainder of the school year), along with mandatory school intervention and another parent conference.

Exceptions to the policy include those with IEPs, 504 plans, those with specific medical needs such as blood glucose monitors or seizure alerts, and multilingual learners with specific technological needs included in their support plan.

“Exceptions may also be made in the event of an emergency as approved by Administration,” the policy reads. Parents are advised, however, that contacting a student on their cell phone during such an emergency “can compromise safety protocols and emergency response operations”

Committee unhappy about Yondr purchase

Ward 4 committee member Jessica Beauchaine expressed her displeasure that the Yondr pouches were already purchased for the whole district, utilizing over $70,000 in Project Aware grant funding. She said she was under the impression the committee had made it clear the Yondr pouch policy was not voted upon or made official by a committee vote.

It was revealed by assistant superintendent Dr. Lisa Benedetti-Ramzi at the meeting that the district would be able to recoup some of the money spent by returning some of them to Yondr; but not all of them.

Benedetti-Ramzi informed the school committee that the pouches intended to be used at Martin Middle School and Riverside Middle School had already been “labeled and numbered”, and therefore couldn’t be returned. Pouches at the high school, however, had been left untouched and could be submitted for a refund. The ones that were “damaged” will now go into rotation to be used within the scope of the new policy.

Beauchaine was noticeably frustrated by how the process had been carried out.

“I want the number that are damaged, the [dollar] amount that we’re getting back, and what we’re keeping for the penalty phase of this policy before I even touch this policy,” Beauchaine said. However, she would later vote in favor of approving the cell phone policy after making a separate motion to deny the administration’s request to pay the $70,000 bill for the pouches.

At-large committee member Anthony Ferreira, the lone to vote against accepting the new policy, repeated his stance from prior meetings about being hesitant to get involved in the policing of people’s property. He insisted it was an issue where parents have to take more responsibility.

“I just have an issue taking someone’s property and telling them to lock it up. This building is owned and paid for by the taxpayers…I’m not too keen on that. If a student is doing wrong and we give them two, three strikes, it becomes a parent issue,” he said. “We have to start utilizing parents. We are not running a daycare. We are not running a babysitting school. We’re here to educate. These are young adults, and they should know if they get caught after the second or third time, we’re going to see your parent once a week. And I’m sure when the parent comes and visits us once or twice a week, it’s going to come to a quick stop.”

East Providence High School principal, Bill Black, in a testimony to the committee during public comment, said that he appreciated their efforts to find a balanced solution to the cell phone issue. He said that incidents of cell phone use in class had seen a “big decline” since implementing the door pouch system a year ago. He said having the pouches as another tool would be helpful.

“I think it is very thoughtful that that would be what students will have if they are unable to use the pocket system and violate that. I think it’s very thoughtful to use the Yondr pouches and having degrees of consequences that go along with that,” he said. “We’re really trying to emphasize responsible cell phone use.”