GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – With the new school year upon us, Gridley Unified School District is making it known that they will be restricting the use of cellphones this year throughout Gridley schools.

Focusing on the older students attending Sycamore Middle School and Gridley High School, which have higher cellphone usage versus their younger counterparts in Wilson and McKinley, GUSD wants to encourage more social interaction and reduce classroom interruption.

The GHS Handbook for this year states, “Electronic devices including cell phones have become a way of life, a technological convenience that has impacted all of our lives in one way or another. Society in general has come to a point where the idea of being without a cell phone seems unreasonable or unimaginable. Students desire cell phone in order to sustain constant contact with friends. Parents often cite peace of mind and want their children to have them for security purposes. Cell phones do have benefits, but with this technology lies a trending situation between the benefits and negative effects of cell phone usage, especially with students.”

It continues to highlight that cell phones have become a distraction in the learning environment and also a way to illegally exchange information. “The cheating, constant texting, sexting and cyber bullying that occur as a result on a national scale are having a detrimental effect of increasing proportions.” The negatives are outweighing the positive. Even during an emergency, cell-phone use can inhibit education or other safety procedures. As a result, Gridley High School will be completely cell phone free during instructional time.

In support of this movement away from cell phone dependency, parents are asked to call the school offices to relay urgent messages to their children. The new policy will require parents to allot sufficient time and organization to communicate with their children through the school office. The schools encourage both students and parents to see this as an opportunity for students to be “electronic free” for the bulk of their day. The hope is that students will revert to developing social interaction skills which have been lost to screen-time, things like face-to-face communication and social problem solving.

Consequences for electronic device or cell phone use during instructional time will include the device being held in the office all the way to the student’s guardian signing the device out after a meeting with the principal and a daily surrender of the device.

 

Parents are urged to contact their school office for more information about their specific school’s policy.