Cullman County School Board member Shane Rusk, from left, Board President Heath Allbright and Superintendent Shane Barnett during a recent meeting.

Cullman County students will be returning to the classroom Wednesday morning, but their cell phones will have to stay outside.

Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette said a new rule from the school board prohibits students from having their phones during the school day.

The rules for cell phone use were previously set by the principals of each school, so the new rule from the county office sets a standard across the county, he said.

“We have agreed the way that we’re going to handle cell phones this year is that once the instructional day starts at our high schools, they need to power their phones down and put them away — whether that is in their lockers or leaving them in their cars —and as soon as the instructional day ends, they can take them back out,” he said.

The new rule comes with a discipline ladder that escalates if a student is caught wit their cell phone during the day, Barnette said.

After the first offense, phones will be taken from students for them to collect from the office at the end of the day, but after the second offense and beyond, parents will have to come to the school to pick up their students’ phones at the end of the day.

The first offense also includes one hour of after-school detention, the second offense will require the student attend Saturday school and the third will send a student to alternative school, he said.

Barnette said most students have been notified of the rule change during open houses, and he said he would send out a call to all parents Tuesday afternoon to let them know the new rule.

So far, the reaction from parents has been positive, he said. 

“I’ve had several parents already speak to me, and they see where we’re coming from,” he said. “I think as a society, we can all probably agree that screen time is way too much right now, and we need them to get away from those devices to get all the instruction they can.”

Barnette said the rule came from discussions with school administration, faculty members, parents and members of the community, and there are a few reasons why the change was made, including cutting down on the disruptions they can cause in the classroom.

“As I’ve talked to teachers and administrators across Cullman County and Alabama, cell phones are one of the main things that cause disruptions in the instruction, and we feel like that’ll help get some more instructional time,” he said. 

Barnette said the system conducted a survey with some students who kept track of all of the notifications, texts and emails that they received during one hour of class, and the class average was more than 50 in one class period, and minimizing that distraction is the key reason behind the rule.

“I know that, for teenagers, it seems like the end of the world if they have to put their phones down for just a little bit, but it’s not going to be,” he said. “I hope that we keep them so engaged that they will forget that they don’t have their cell phone.”

Barnette said local employers have also reached out to him and members of the school board about young workers who are unable to go without their cell phones during the work day.

“They tell me that they are constantly fighting young people being addicted to their cell phones,” he said. 

Some high school students are already working jobs after school, and others will soon be going to work or going to college, and they will need to be able to spend time away from their phones on all of those paths, Barnette said.

“We feel like we’re going to better prepare our young people to be college and career ready,” he said. “They’re going to have to learn that there’s going to be some time away from that phone.”

Tyler Hanes can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 138.