PRESCOTT – The Prescott School Board heard a first reading of Policy 5136: Personal Communication Devices at its July 16 meeting; staff is asking for cell phones to be locked up and inaccessible from the beginning of the school day to the end of instructional time, or “bell-to-bell.”

“We have been taking a look at a lot of the distraction that our kids are faced with every day by devices, whether it be Chromebooks, their phones, their watches,” Supt. Jim Reif said.

The admin team is recommending a change to the district’s policy so students are not allowed to have their devices from the time they walk in the door until the end of the school day. Reif said research shows that increased cell phone usage by children and adolescents is harmful not only to learning but mental health.  

Prescott High School Principal Josh Fiege said this policy has been discussed on and off for the past eight years. To the committee who studied the issue, this policy isn’t about phones; it’s about learning.

“It’s about asking ourselves what type of environment we want for our students to best grow academically, socially and emotionally,” Fiege said.

Fiege likened giving students unlimited access to devices during instructional time as providing people a gym where they can work out to lose weight and become healthier, but it has an unlimited pizza buffet, ice cream, massage chairs for lounging and watching TV and weight machines that do the work themselves.

“Real growth, we all know this, requires productive struggle and effort and focus. And learning works exactly the same way,” Fiege said. “When we surround students with constant digital distractions, and increasingly with Artificial Intelligence and apps that can complete the cognitive work for them, we are unintentionally removing the very experiences that create learning.”

Research continues to show that as the rates of device usage increase, so do rates of bullying, anxiety and depression, Fiege said. At the same time, health outcomes, academic performance and emotional growth diminish.

This policy is in line with Wisconsin Act 42, which requires all school boards to adopt a policy prohibiting students from using a wireless communication device, other than a school district-issued device, during instructional time. School boards can also adopt policies that are more restrictive than required by Act 42.

Fiege said Prescott is ahead of the curve and has had a cell phone policy in place for the past decade. However, Prescott’s current policy allows students to use personal communication devices before and after school, during their lunch breaks, in between classes as long as they don’t create a distraction or disruption, during after-school activities or at school functions. During instructional time, students must have the phone powered completely off (not just on silent or on vibrate mode) and stored out of sight. The Intermediate School requires students to keep devices in their lockers or on “school mode.” The middle school requires the devices to remain in lockers during instructional time and lunch. High school students must put their phones in their lockers or in classroom “phone holders” during instructional time.

However, despite the current policy and staff efforts, most students don’t follow the policy, leading to distractions and disturbance, Fiege said. He said a big problem has been students texting or responding to texts during class on their Smartwatches. At the middle school, an eighth grader who had been reprimanded for phone use looked at the policy and told Principal Kyle Igou that the policy only requires phones to be out of sight, not in a locker; therefore, the majority of eighth grade boys carried their phones with them the last three weeks of the year.

Fiege also said it’s virtually impossible to enforce Policy 9151, which prohibits any type of recording device (such as a phone) in a locker room or district bathroom, which has led to problems.

According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, of the state’s 421 school districts, 20.7% had full bans in place with 9.7% having no restrictions in place, leaving guidance and enforcement to teachers’ discretion. Wisconsin became the 35^th state to have statewide legislation restricting cell phone use during the school day and is considering a full bell-to-bell ban.

The proposed policy change in Prescott would ban students from possessing, carrying or having access to a personal communication device during the instructional school day. Students would be required to turn their devices off and turn them into a district-designated secure storage system. They would not be allowed to retrieve, possess, access or use the devices once secured until the end of the instructional day, unless authorized by school admins.

Special education teacher Shana Clauson told the board that technology/cell phone violation behavioral referrals have increased dramatically since the end of Covid.

“At this point, we’re at almost 50% of the behavior referrals that they are seeing every year are just cell phone violations,” Clauson said.

Personal communication device violation referrals numbered 163 out of 494 incidents in 2022-23, 112 out of 331 in 2023-24, 158 out of 396 in 2024-25 and 129 out of 264 in 2025-26. Clauson said the number one thing Prescott teachers say in end of the year surveys is that something must be done about cell phones.

“Everyone is so frustrated because we are all trying to consistently enforce the rules that we have,” Clauson said. “We have the policy, we have building rules, but despite the fact that we are working together to consistently enforce the rules, we cannot get a handle on it. In fact, things just keep getting worse. And we’re having more and more difficulty every year getting a handle on it.”

Clauson has seen students text in class, make phone calls, FaceTime people, even make appointments. She said teachers are exhausted from trying to police cell phone usage. This in turn can also create animosity towards the teacher, who is trying to prohibit cell phone use.

“I cannot tell you all of the times I have stepped foot into a bathroom and there is a girl in there texting or on the phone,” Clauson said.

Fiege presented data from international educational researcher John Hattie, who equates Smartphone usage to being as damaging to student learning as depression, bullying or even childhood traumatic brain injuries.

“Research demonstrates that student performance declines when students merely know their phones are nearby,” Fiege said. “That’s our current policy. In their backpack, in their pocket, up in front of the room, in a locker.”

Fiege said he realizes some parents are concerned about not being able to reach their kids throughout the day due to possible safety issues. Prescott’s Student Resource Officer Jacobson supports a “bell-to-bell” policy, citing the following reasons:

• Recent issues involved students using AI-generated or explicit images during the school day.
• Threats
• A majority of harassment and disorderly conduct reports are tied to cell phone use. Students have recorded fights and assaults, using social media to victimize students and facilitate bullying.

In emergency situations, cell phone use can cause trouble for law enforcement and staff who are trying to keep kids safe:

• Divert student attention from critical safety procedures like evacuations or lockdowns.
• During crises, cell phones can spread inaccurate information, causing confusion for responding agencies unfamiliar with school facilities. High volumes of 911 calls from students can overwhelm dispatch systems, making it difficult for essential calls to connect.
• During active threats, holding an item like a phone can be mistaken for a weapon by responding officers.
• Posting student locations on social media during a crisis complicates reunification efforts and compromises site security.

“From our standpoint on student safety, it seems pretty clear that our students and the people who are working with our students to keep them safe have been big proponents of an additional restriction in this bell-to-bell build,” Fiege said.

Clauson also pointed out that cell phone usage is affecting student mental health in multiple ways. Students who receive texts from friends or family about difficult things during the day have a hard time controlling their emotions in class. Instead of going through administrators and counselors who could help break potentially bad news to students, parents are sending texts directly to their children and staff have no idea what’s upsetting a student, who seemed fine a minute ago. She said multiple students tell them that their parents will be upset if they don’t call them back or respond to a text, a common excuse used when asking to use their phones. All of these create disruptions for teachers and other students; the constant disruptions are bringing down staff morale, Clauson said.

Board Treasurer Vicki Rudolph said she has heard inklings how much teachers despise dealing with cell phones and that enforcement is inconsistent. She also said the example of 400 upset kids calling 911 and bogging down Pierce County Dispatch struck a chord with her, along with hearing how kids sometimes receive bad news in class.

“A child getting horrible news in the middle of a class is not the way any of that should be happening,” Rudolph said. “That should definitely be, that’s why we have school counselors, that’s why we have the office, to take that kid out of that situation if there is something that needs to be handled in private that is very sensitive.”

She was also glad the administration consulted the police department about potential safety issues.

Board member Brad Stubbe said he would 100% support the new changes; Board President Mike Matzek said his only wish is that it could’ve been talked about prior to the end of the school year. He wanted to know how it would be communicated to the parents.

Reif said an email will be sent out to all parents and administration will take parents’ feedback. The item will be coming back for a second reading at the August meeting.

“We’re definitely not trying to sneak this through during the summer,” Reif said.

The admin team is planning to work on the logistics of having students check in their phones each day to a centralized, secure location. More information will be provided at the August meeting.

Matzek said a week ago he wasn’t for the policy change, but after hearing the presentation, he’s all for it.

“You’d have to be living under a rock to not think cell phones are a distraction and they’re bad for learning,” Matzek said.

All four board members present approved the first reading, with Vice President Tonya Holub absent.