LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Parents gave Lakota school officials an ear full of advice on the school systems’ policies regarding student cell phones and that was exactly what officials were seeking from a recent public forum on the topic.
Hosted by the district with two members of the Lakota Board of Education attending, the recent “community conversation” was the first of this school year and focused on in-school cell phone use prompted by a new Ohio law requires all public school districts to have or update their policies by summer 2025.
According to Lakota officials, district leadership wants to first reach out to school parents and others before making changes to the current policy, which was last updated in 2017.
“A lot of parents want there to be some policy that doesn’t distract their kids from their education but they also want to weigh the balance of safety and how they could get a hold of their kids in the case of emergency,” said Kelley Casper, vice president of the governing board for the 18,000-student district.
“The biggest takeaway I got is that people want this decision made using data points and try as much as we can to take the emotional piece out of it,” said Casper in video posted by Lakota after the public meeting.
A recent Journal-News review of Butler County schools finds many already have policies addressing that goal, though some local school officials say they plan to use the new state guidelines to further fine-tune their rules.
Over the years, cell phone policies have been altered by individual districts to combat not only general distractions during class times, but also to minimize social media bullying, facilitate better learning through controlled use in some classroom instruction and enhance school security through alerts.
Fellow board member Douglas Horton joined Casper in attending the meeting and said: “there was an interesting tension between wanting for consistency across all buildings and teachers but the need for flexibility for individual teachers and that is a space we really need to explore.”
Prior to the meeting the district solicited school parents’ opinions via an online survey.
According to Lakota officials, 363 participants sharing 136 thoughts in the survey and the responses revealed a range of opinions.
Some parents appreciate the emergency access phones provide, while others support teachers collecting phones to reduce distractions in class. Several suggest using methods to prevent the use of cell phones in class.
Many emphasized the need for clear, consistent policies, with some advocating for a total ban during school hours to enhance focus and social interaction. Concerns about emergencies and mental health were prevalent, with some parents insisting on having immediate access to their students.
District officials said the meeting, survey and future opinion-gathering efforts will be used “to guide its decision-making as they work to refine the cell phone policy to better support our students, staff and families.”
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