New regulations for students applicable to the 26-27 school year are being made by the administration of Westford Academy and proposed for the student handbook.
As of right now, there is a handbook proposal to eliminate the use of personal phones and electronic devices during the school day. According to Principal Dan Twomey, this will be a systematic way of dealing with the use of phones for next year.
“It will start with educators in the classrooms asking for it to be put away, then, [if it happens again], the phone will be taken away for that period. If the device is spotted again, it will be given to the student’s Dean, and a guardian will have to pick it up at the end of the school day,” Twomey said.
Administration is still figuring out exact ways to secure phones out of students’ hands during educational hours. Ideas like Yonder Pouches, which are already being used in the middle schools in Westford, have been offered as a possibility for dealing with the issue. There are also other avenues, like an app being used in some Metro Boston schools which limits what students can access while in school.
“[Students] are going to ask, ‘Can I take my phone out?’ and a teacher will be the person in charge of giving permission. It can never be out in the hallway, bathroom, and even lunch,” Dean Betsy Murphy said.
Surveying of staff members and students throughout the school year and looking at referrals from this year and how those numbers and information compare to the statistics of next year will be some of the metrics that will be in use for the following year, 27-28.
According to Murphy, the plagiarism, cheating, and taking of photos of other students without their consent are the reason that these policies are being looked at as necessary and beneficial.
“We are at a point where I think it is important to find ways to have students as engaged as possible for the entire school day and if we eliminate the distraction it will help a lot,” Twomey said. “There will be difficulties and there are things that are not fully figured out yet, but we will work through it.”
