Montpelier High School Principal Jason Gingold will present a draft of a cell phone-free school day policy to the Montpelier-Roxbury School Board tonight, Wednesday April 2.

According to a press release by PhoneFreeSchoolsVT.com, the policy is written for the 2025-2026 school year. It is a milestone in a process that began in earnest a year ago when individual parents and teachers voiced questions about the negative impacts of cell phones on the academic and social-emotional learning environment. 

“The Anxious Generation came out in March 2024 and named concerns I’d been having for about ten years,” says Rima Carlson, a family physician in Montpelier and parent of two teenagers. “At home I was seeing first-hand how addictive the phones are to the adolescent brain. At work I was seeing higher levels of depression as well as attention disorders for younger and younger patients.I care deeply about the future of our youth, so I brought my concerns to MHS administration.” In the fall, committees of MHS teachers, students, and parents began to look into the mental health impact of cell phones on youth and how phone-free policies at other schools were going. 

Superintendent Libby Bonesteel praised Gingold’s leadership in the town’s Front Porch Forum: “He’s engaged in the process with students, staff, and caregivers. This has been the primary focus of his Caregiver Council. I have been impressed with Principal Gingold’s process and desire to include as many voices as possible in the conversation. In doing so, it allows for us to find creative solutions for potential challenges a cell phone free school would bring.”  

For several years MHS has had a policy where phones are not allowed during instruction, but enforcement varies class to class. “Teachers want to focus on teaching, not on constantly being the phone police, which I get,” says Liza Earle-Centers, parent of two recent MHS graduates and hears that only about ¼ of the classes are phones actually taken away, “The teachers can’t compete with a device that offers a steady stream of dopamine. Why invest so much money in education if we allow these devices that we know rob academic focus, mental health, and time for in-person connection?”

This goal of the new policy, in which all personal devices will be stored in the main office for the day, is about eliminating that barrier and letting students and teachers be free to reach their full potential in class as well as during transitions and lunch. 

Supporters hope to use the time for public comment to appreciate Principal Gingold’s process and call on the School Board to make the MHS policy a district-wide policy. The MHS policy includes all personal devices, including Smartwatches which some say have become problematic in the younger grades. In response to concerns that students need phones during a crisis, advocates cite school security experts who say phones actually make children less safe during an emergency. Phones distract students from their teachers’ instructions, allow misinformation to spread, and give away hiding spots by making noises and giving off light.

Last Friday, Harwood Union High School’s weekly newsletter shared data from their first semester of a truly phone-free school year that showed improvement in every area measured. Statewide legislation H.54 / S. 21, if passed, would allow every school in Vermont to access this benefit.

The posted agenda for 4/2/25 includes a link to the Device Free Plan and Procedures as well as a Zoom link for those who can’t make it to the in-person meeting in the MHS Library. Public comment begins at 6:30pm.