Waco, TX (FOX 44) – G.W. Carver Indian Spring Middle School held a meeting Monday evening to discuss its new student-phone policy and guidelines.
The new policy will require students to place their phones inside a locked pouch throughout the school day.
Its principal Reggie Lewis says they’re enacting this policy after noticing many students on their phones throughout the day, not focusing on the classroom.
“The main focus is we’re not trying to take a kid’s phone away from them. We don’t want to inconvenience parents. We just want to create a better environment for the students to learn,” said Lewis.
Lewis says they started looking into having school pouches at the beginning of March.
The school received a grant to make this possible and made an announcement last week.
“We’re seeing it’s good, we’re happy. You have the ones that say, ‘Well, what about my kid if I need to get a hold of them.’ Contact the school, we can get them for you,” said Lewis.
For parents who wish to track their child on life360, Lewis says the pouch can still make it possible.
“We can put those phones on airplane mode and they can still continue to watch them,” said Lewis. “We’ve been listening to what people have been saying and trying to make sure we can accommodate them.”
Tuesday morning Lewis says the school will set up stations outside for students to get their pouches.
The students will be able to keep the pouch with them and even take it home.
G.W. Carver purchased nearly 800 pouches for each student in the school.
“The student, they get their pouch, they put their name on it. We have a QR code where they can sign in real quick just name and I.D. so we know who received one and who hasn’t received one, and we show them how to use it,” said Lewis.
For parents who have additional questions, Lewis says you can come to the school’s donuts with grownups event tomorrow morning at 8:30 to get them answered.
