What is an emergency? Wake school board is open to interpretations in new cellphone policy

School staff should be able to define an emergency when it comes to allowing students to use their cellphones, Wake school board members said Tuesday.

That's because the examples of emergencies could be wide-ranging, from a lockdown to an individual student's health issue, Board Member Lindsay Mahaffey said.

During a Tuesday work session, board members were tasked with defining "emergency," because its proposed cellphone policy -- and potential state legislation -- would restrict students' personal cellphone access, except in the case of "emergencies."

Board members' discussion touched on major safety concerns among parents about the possibility of harsher cellphone restrictions. Leaders in law enforcement and education told WRAL News on Tuesday that parents' concerns need to be considered as schools weigh cellphone policies, but noted that cellphones can pose challenges or safety concerns of their own, too.

The board also discussed ways to better define terms included in its current draft policy on student use of personal wireless communications devices, such as liability and what it would mean to confiscate a cellphone.

The school board is considering a district-wide cellphone policy intended to reduce the distractions of mobile devices during the school day, while states and school districts across the nation increasingly move to restrict cellphone access in harsher ways. Most Wake schools — like most across the nation — restrict cellphone use during the school day. But teachers and others note that cellphones are still a problem and that many policies aren't consistently enforced or don't contain clear enforcement mechanisms.

The Wake school board is attempting to address the issues at the same time North Carolina lawmakers are taking up the issue in separate bills that would require school boards to restrict cellphone or wireless device access to different degrees. The bills have been approved by legislative committees, but have yet to reach Gov. Josh Stein’s desk.

The school board discussed the policy during a work session on Tuesday and plans to review a second draft of it next week. The board wants a policy in place by July.

North Carolinians welcome school cellphone bans, balk at bills to loosen gun laws, poll shows

What is an emergency?

As for an emergency, the board considered either defining it as "a situation involving imminent physical danger that requires immediate communication" or letting school staff determine if a situation is an emergency when it arises. In the latter circumstance, a student would need to ask for permission to use their device, and the staff would provide them with instructions on whether they can and how.

When it comes to safety, cellphones can be tools for good or bad.

During a meeting last week of Gov. Josh Stein's Council on Student Safety and Well-Being, some committee members, including lawmakers, said they understood that parents want to be able to reach their children during a school lockdown to ensure they're OK. But they said they'd also heard from law enforcement that cellphones could be a distraction for students in the event of a lockdown, when they need to be listening to their teachers.

But a lockdown is the exact type of emergency that many parents want to make exceptions for in cellphone policies.

Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe told WRAL News he's concerned about parents having access to accurate information during an emergency and making sure law enforcement can contain situations amid public confusion or rumors about what's going on.

But Rowe understands and respects that parents want accurate information as soon as possible.

"I think we have to have continued dialogue," he said. "We have to build that trust. We have to continue to work on it."

Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, suggests cellphone agreements among schools, parents and students that could outline ways for cellphones to be stored away but also easily accessed if need be. She mentioned storage spaces for cellphones inside classrooms that students could access quickly if they needed to.

Teachers are trained to keep students safe during lockdowns, and cellphones can be a positive or a negative in those situations, Walker Kelly said. Educators are trying to keep students safe and be aware of what's happening outside of the classroom.

"Cellphones can cause a distraction by ringing or pinging location to outside entities, which also could compromise the safety of the
individuals in the room, but also it could inform law enforcement if needed to find students," Walker Kelly said. "So it's almost a catch-22 of the use of technology in that moment."

Walker Kelly says schools, with the help of stakeholders, should define a range of emergencies so that schools can consistently enforce their policies. People might consider more than just life safety to be an emergency, she said. Students who work need to know if their schedule has changed after school, she said.

Cellphone misuse is also a cause of safety issues -- bullying, bomb threats.

Bullying is a top misuse, Rowe said. While he supports cellphones for educational, emergency or other practical uses, that's often not how the devices are used.

"[From] a public safety standpoint, we're always concerned... when people are utilizing devices to threaten others, to harass, to intimidate or to bully people, and so that's the issue here. How do we manage that? How do we prevent it, so that people can teach and learn in a safe environment?" Rowe said.

What happens when a student breaks the rule?

When it comes to confiscating a device, the district floated districtwide guidance or school-level approach.

Rules around confiscation can influence staff members' willingness to enforce the rules, teachers say. That's because of the common concern that teachers have about whether they'd be held liable for any damage to the phone.

But on Tuesday, board members said they were concerned they can't legally exempt themselves or staff members from liability.

The district's insurance likely doesn't cover damages to confiscated phones, either, officials said.

Many educators are worried about being liable for any damage to a phone after confiscating it. That's caused some teachers to want agreements between parents and schools about rules, confiscation and liability, so everyone is on the same page, Walker Kelly said.

"We want to take it out of the hands of the classroom and into the district to ensure that educators aren't necessarily worried about implementing a policy that is supposed to be good for students and good for the learning space," she said. "And so we hope that districts continue to explore how to alleviate that risk from the educator, because we ultimately want to continue to have learning spaces where students succeed and not worry about the risk of damage to a device or loss of a device, because we want students to participate in the academic process."

The board also weighed guidance on when phones could be confiscated.

The possible districtwide guidance — Option A — would allow staff to temporarily confiscate a device if the student doesn't immediately comply with an order to put it away, is a repeat offender of the rule or their use of the device is disruptive to others. Once the device is confiscated, the student would get it back at the end of the class or in some more extreme cases, at the end of the school day. School administration could also require the student's parent or guardian pick the device up at the end of the day.

The other scenario — Option B — would allow principals to create their own rules for confiscating a device. Those rules would need to be written down and consistently enforced.

The first option is the one most board members preferred, so that rules could be consistent across the board.

Phones off, or silenced?

Wake’s draft policy says phones must be "turned off/silenced/in airplane mode" -- three options that were listed for the board to eventually pick one of those terms. If phones are turned off, students can't use location services, and other devices, such as smartwatches or Bluetooth headphones, couldn't connect to their cellphones. That's the policy in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools and in Union County elementary and middle schools.

But board members Tuesday largely preferred requiring phones only to be silenced.

Board Member Sam Hershey said he didn't think it would be practical to verify that so many devices were turned off.

"That's would be a ridiculous waste of time," Hershey said.

Cellphones could still be used in learning, Board Member Christina Gordon said.

"The cellphone is also used to make sure we are developing 21st-century learners," she said. Plus, it could take too long in an emergency for a student to have to turn their phone back on before being able to use it, she said.

Board Chairman Chris Heagarty said the policy will still need to address students being able to use devices remotely, through Bluetooth technology.

"We know many of these devices can be used and accessed while put away," he said. "If the whole purpose of the policy is to avoid distraction, then simply putting it away itself doesn't necessarily stop that."