Governor Kathy Hochul, second from left, Common Council President Miguel Rodrigues, Mayor Joseph DeStefano and Assemblywoman Paula Kay toured downtown Middletown on Monday to view the results of the city’s $10 million state-funded Downtown Revitalization Initiative.
By Jeanine Agnolet, MidHudson News
MIDDLETOWN – Governor Kathy Hochul made a stop at Middletown High School on Monday to talk about the state’s smartphone ban that will take effect in schools this September.
The governor participated in a roundtable discussion with school district administrators, educators, and students.
This was her latest stop on her six-month-long tour of the state to tout her K-12 “bell to bell” smartphone ban and a distraction free school experience.
The governor admits this new policy will not be easy for anyone, but it is essential to preserving and maintaining the mental health of our children.
“Expect some disruption. Change is hard. It is hard,” said Hochul. “But as I did my research and studied the trends and talked to countless parents and students about what’s happening in their lives, I know we’re on the right path, and history will look back at us and say, it’s a shame it took this long.”
The new requirement applies to all schools in public school districts as well as charter schools and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES).
The most recent state budget allocated $13.5 million to help schools implement their own plan and help pay for storage solutions for students’ smartphones.
The governor says nearly all of the 1,100 schools have submitted their plans by the August 1 deadline.
Many critics of the state’s smartphone free policy are parents, who say their children won’t have a way to connect with them in a dire emergency, such as a school shooting.
The governor admits that she was concerned about that, but completely changed her mind after speaking to people who know better.
She said the cellphone ban came about after hearing from law enforcement.
“If there is an active shooter on a school campus or in a school building, the last thing you want is your child fumbling for their cellphone, trying to call mom or dad, possibly disclosing where they are,” said Hochul. “Their cellphone can go off and identify their location. That jeopardizes their lives.”
It’s no surprise that the governor chose Middletown as her latest stop on her smartphone restriction tour.
The Enlarged City of Middletown School District is a forerunner in this realm. Its students have been successfully banned from using cell phones since 2021.
Middletown students place their smartphones in a locked pouch at the beginning of the day. The pouch can only be unlocked with a special magnetic key at the end of the school day or at the discretion of an administrator or teacher.
