The Johnson County Post earlier this month convened educators, parents, students and a representative from the Johnson County Mental Health Center to talk about smartphones in schools.
Driven by a growing body of research that shows the devices can impede learning and be a distraction in the schoolhouse, most public school districts in Johnson County over the past year or so have imposed new rules on how and when students can use their smartphones and other electronic devices during the school day.
By and large, educators and students who participated in the Post’s forum said the new rules have been a good thing for the classroom environment, limiting distractions and prompting more face-to-face interactions.
Still, some parents say local schools’ policies don’t go far enough, advocating for a “bell to bell” ban in which students would be unable to access their phones for the entire school day.
Watch the Post’s forum
If you missed the Post’s forum on April 15, you can go back and watch it at our Facebook page or at our new YouTube channel.
Or just watch here in this embedded video:
Who participated?
The Post’s forum event comprised two separate panels of participants, with each panel lasting about an hour.
There was a discussion moderated by Post Editor Kyle Palmer for each panel, followed by audience questions.
The first panel starts at about 13:30 in the embedded video above and includes:
- Kim Whitman, co-founder of the nonprofit Phone-Free Schools Movement and also a parent of two teenagers in the Shawnee Mission school district
- Jill Johnson, president of Shawnee Mission KNEA and a teacher at Shawnee Mission East High school
- Chris Huff, a parent of a Shawnee Mission elementary schooler
- Don Branham, a literacy instructor at California Trail Middle School
The second panel starts at 1:06:00 in the embedded video above and includes:
- Asher Bowyer, a senior at Gardner Edgerton High School
- Avni Bansal, a sophomore at Shawnee Mission East High School
- Evyn Haas, a senior at Shawnee Mission South High School
- Tim DeWeese, director of the Johnson County Mental Health Center
Why did we do this?
For years, the Post has hosted public forums featuring candidates running for local office during election seasons.
We feel these events not only give our readers direct access to those who would hold power in their communities, but they also create a shared communal space where residents of Johnson County can come together in conversation, even if they hold divergent viewpoints.
The town hall about phones in schools on April 15 was different from our more typical candidate forums but still guided by the same belief that we can have dialogue and disagreement and still remain one Johnson County community.
Earlier this year, we polled readers who are part of our “Commit to Community” circle about what topics they’d like to see be the subject of new Johnson County Post forums.
Phones in schools was one of the topics these readers came up with, but there were more hot-button issues that readers and residents care about.
We plan to host more topic-driven town halls in the future.
If you have ideas about what topics we should focus on, let us know at stories@johnsoncountpost.com.
