CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – When Clay County students head back to school in a little over a month, more cellphone and wireless device restrictions will be in place.
The Clay County School District’s updated policy won’t allow elementary or junior high students to use their cellphones or wireless devices during school hours. While high schoolers will only be allowed to use their phones during lunch.
Terri Dennis, district coordinator of communications and media relations, said last school year, students were able to use their phones or wireless devices during class changes and lunch.
However, under the new policy, students can use phones during class if a teacher permits them for instructional use.
Along with using cellphones, tablets and gaming systems, students are banned from wearing AirPods earbuds or headphones on school grounds.
The district says if a student needs to contact a parent during the day, they can do so from the nearest office.
The district’s revised wireless device policy complies with Florida House Bill 379 by restricting wireless communication devices from morning bell to dismissal bell, including class changes throughout the school day.
That bill also prohibits the use of certain platforms on district-owned devices and designates areas for wireless communication during instructional time.
New4JAX wanted to speak to students about the changes and if it would affect them.
“Probably not because I just want to have good grades,” Garrett Dewey, an incoming freshman at Fleming Island High School, said. “I get distracted very easily by watching something so I just try and put it up.”
While Dewey wasn’t bothered by the change, other high schoolers at the Orange Park Mall felt it was an unfair policy.
The parents we spoke with were all on the same page, though.
“We didn’t have phones growing up and we came out OK,” Cameron Napoleon said. “We can read. We can write. We can understand and comprehend. We have the capacity to learn and look up what we need to find so taking their phones is probably a great thing for them.”
Shanese also said the new change won’t hurt students.
”You should be sitting down doing your work,” Shanese said. “Focus on the teacher and don’t be trying to be on your phone.”
The district said in the event of a school-wide emergency, students will have access to their devices.