McCracken

ELKINS — The parent of an Elkins High School student voiced her concerns this week about the Randolph County school system’s new Personal Electronic Devices Policy for students.

Rebecca McCracken spoke during the Public Comment section of Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting and told the BOE she was happy about the passage of Senate Bill 457, which reads “Student cell phones shall not be seen, heard, or in use while the student is in the classroom, while school is in session. Student cell phones must be physically detached from the student’s body by being placed in a backpack, purse, in a collective pouch in the classroom, or in the student’s assigned locker.”

McCracken’s issues are with some of the changes Randolph County Schools made in the policy they put out for the students.

“I’m a parent of a high school student at Elkins High School, a very good student I will say, and I’m proud of her,” McCracken said. “But I’m absolutely appalled by the PED policy… I absolutely believe that our children do deserve to be free from distractions, electronic or otherwise, during class and the Senate got the wording right.

“Where things went wrong was where you guys decided to make significant changes that violate our students’ rights by putting out the PED policy.”

McCracken told the Board there are several pieces of Senate Bill 457 that the county is not following, the first being the use of smartwatches.

“Senate Bill 457 clearly states that students are allowed to wear smartwatches,” she said. “It doesn’t say at the discretion of the school board. It says students are allowed to wear smart watches, but that they may not be used for communication during class, which is entirely reasonable and I agree with that wholeheartedly.

“With their bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cell service off, a smart watch can still tell time and can track a student athletes’ steps,” McCracken said. “I have a student athlete who is very upset about this because she tracks her steps all the time, and at home it can sync with her device. Now she can’t do that and she feels that I have to go buy her another device that she can wear, and I don’t have the money for that.”

McCracken said her daughter’s smartwatch can also monitor her heart rate and her blood pressure, which is important with her being a student athlete. She added that her daughter’s smartwatch also serves as a calendar and notepad.

“There are many students in our school who have educational challenges and rely on things like this to keep them on track,” McCracken said. “Taking away the ability for them to do that serves no good educational purpose.”

McCracken added that the Elkins High School PED policy doesn’t permit students to wear the smartwatches at any time, and the watches must remain in students’ backpacks at all times.

“This is a right, it’s in the law, so you violated the law,” McCracken said.

The second issue McCracken has with Elkins High School’s policy has to do with the return of PEDs at the end of the school day if they are taken from a student.

“I’ve looked at the consequences that you have outlined for students that violate the policy, and according to the policy, on your second, third, or fourth offense, that phone is not given back to the student, the parent must come and pick it up,” McCracken said. “That’s a violation of the language of the law, so you need to fix it.”

The next policy issue McCracken addressed was the use of devices between classes, at lunch, or with the permission of a teacher.

“The EHS policy removes this right by prohibiting PEDs explicitly during those times,” McCracken said. “Not only does this violate the students’ rights, but it takes away the ability for our teachers to foster and teach appropriate cell phone usage. This is a skill high school students need to learn.

“I saw almost every one of you look at your phone before we got in here and you all knew when the meeting started you put your phone down. We need to teach this, because otherwise they’re going to be on their phone in college because we haven’t taught them how to use it.”

McCracken’s final issue was with ADA policies and the use of PEDs at Elkins High School.

“It does say that we are not to violate the ADA policies, and as a parent of a child with a disability, I very specifically feel that there are some things being violated, which I can take on a personal trip,” said McCracken.

“The students were told that the only reason a kid could have their phone is if they had diabetes and needed to link it to their phone. There is more than just diabetes as an ADA thing. So I think you need to go back and look at the law and try to fix that for us.”

The next Randolph County Board of Education regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 5:30 p.m.