Morristown High principal says phone ban helping students focus in class

By Kathy Shwiff

A ban on cell phone use during classes is 85 percent to 90 percent effective in its second year at Morristown High School, according to Principal Mark Manning.

“I’ve had scores of students over the past two years come up to me very quietly in the hallway out of earshot of their friends and thank me, telling me, Mr. Manning, I never realized how distracted I was in class when I had access to my phone,” he said during a panel discussion last week.

Students, Screens and the Search for Belonging was hosted by the Presbyterian Church in Morristown as part of its Forum on the Green series addressing the theme of Belonging in the Age of Loneliness.

Manning was joined on the panel by Yesenia Cardona, a clinician with the TRAIL program at Morristown High School; Jennifer Giordano, MHS director of guidance and mental health support services; and Aida Harris, coordinator of youth enrichment, teen engagement and recreational programs at Cornerstone Family Programs and the Morristown Neighborhood House.

Retired public school teacher Richard Schwartz moderated the discussion.

Video: Watch “Screens, Students and the Search for Belonging:

Manning said Chromebooks issued to students have filters blocking most social media sites and other websites in school. Go Guardian software alerts guidance counselors when students search for harmful, pornographic or inappropriate information on their computers.

“I’ve had countless conversations with young people over the past five years that we’ve had this software in place, helping them understand the error of their ways,” he noted.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers had to change their instructional approach to reduce their reliance on computers, he said.

“We really did have to retrain,” Manning said, pointing out that many new teachers started work during the pandemic.

“I’ve seen tremendous movement away from constant screen time and back to just old-fashioned good pedagogy.”

ON THE T.R.A.I.L. TO HEALTHIER STUDENTS

Cardona explained the high school’s Therapeutic Resources through Assessment, Intervention and Learning (TRAIL) program, which helps students with mental health and behavioral problems.

“They can come in any time they’re feeling depressed, anxious, having negative thoughts, are tired in the morning or just feeling that they don’t belong,” in addition to weekly individual and group sessions, she said.

Videos are used to address topics such as self-harm, isolation, social media, sexting, even abuse.

“I find that the program works … students come in … and they want to talk,” Cardona said.

ADVICE TO PARENTS

Giordano urged parents and grandparents to model the behaviors they want to see in their children.

“If we want our children to engage and be a bit more conversational and learn comfort in that conversation, we have to put our phones down.”

While students are putting away their phones in school, “unless we re-enforce that at home and outside of school, it’s going to be mixed messaging,” she said.

Manning said he had direct conversations with each of his children outlining his expectations about their use of cell phones before buying them one.

In addition, he and his wife insisted that every device with a plug be on the kitchen table at 9 p.m. for the night. “If you’re looking for something to do from 9 o’clock until you fall asleep, read a book.”

“We the adults need to retake control of the runaway train a little bit with these devices,” Manning added.

PARENTAL CONTROLS

Harris recommended using parental controls on children’s phones, including turning off certain features at a specific time.

Parents also need to check their child’s phones at random times, she said.

Doing that with her son “has brought us together… We have conversations that are sometimes uncomfortable to have but are necessary” because children should look to their parents, rather than social media, for answers, she said.

Cardona said teens are looking for parents to set boundaries. They also miss time that they spent with their parents when they were younger, taking walks or having pizza or game nights. “They’re telling me that they’re missing that.”

Manning told parents to talk to their children. “Just engage them in conversation. Ask them what they’re interested in. Ask them what’s troubling them.”

Cardona agreed that parents should be talking to their children. “If they see that you’re there and you’re opening up, they will open up as well and they will start sharing and hopefully it will be less isolation for them.”

Harris recommended that parents get their children involved in sports or other activities that don’t involve technology. At the Neighborhood House, “we have a thousand programs.”

AVOID DEPENDENCY

Giordano said being dependent on technology is not healthy. “Being on the phone for excessive hours a day is … physically harmful, and it’s also creating a dependency on technology…We don’t want to teach them that dependency is OK.”

She also pointed out that social media decreases the cerebral matter of students exposed to it in their early adolescence or pre-adolescence.

“Aspects of development that are learned over time are either accelerated —and not in a good way — or they are decelerated by that constant firing, stimulus and access. It changes the way the brain works.”

That can lead to depression, anxiety, and a heightened sense of self-awareness and comparison, she said.

Many students in kindergarten or early elementary grades are more comfortable with a screen than with another person, she added.

The Walsh Memorial Bell Choir of the Presbyterian Church of Morris Plains performed before the discussion. In January, inspirational speaker Kevin Hines inaugurated the series with a talk encouraging those in crisis to seek help. Hines survived a suicide leap from the Golden Gate Bridge at age 19.