BOULDER, Colo. — The Boulder Valley School District Board of Education passed a no-cellphones policy for high schools Tuesday night.
The policy said social media and technology are worsening student mental health and disrupting classroom learning.
"This over-reliance on cellphones vs. interactions with peers is a troubling trend that is affecting the mental health of students that we serve," Dr. Rob Anderson, BVSD superintendent, said.
BVSD had already banned phones at the elementary and middle school levels. The board said this policy would be implemented in January.
The decision was nearly unanimous, but board president Nicole Rajpal disagreed.
"Rather than starting this conversation with a question, like, 'How does personal access to tech devices and platforms impact the educational environment?,' we started with a solution and I feel like that limited engagement with the data, from the folks we heard feedback from and our ability to spend the time to think through all the different ways students use technology because we were so focused on cellphones."
Other board members agreed the decision might have been made a bit quickly, but ultimately decided it would be best for the students.
In addition, the board stressed the method to banning cellphones is flexible. The board discussed potential grant funding to purchase phone pouches or lockers to hold students accountable.
The policy does leave room for phone use under educator supervision.