The back to school season is underway, and Chadron Public Schools goes back in session for the 2024-2025 academic school year starting bright and early Monday morning. This year however poses a change for middle schoolers concerning technology privileges.
Starting this school year, Chadron Middle School will be enforcing tighter restrictions on cell phone usage during school hours. According to principal Dr. Nick Dressel, in the past few years, students have had the liberty to have cellular devices on their person and could use them with teacher permission or during passing periods. However, after experimenting with this privilege, they have proven to be too much of a distraction during instruction time. Dressel also says they’ve had issues with unfitting use of cell phones during class.
From now on, during school hours, students will be required to have their cell phones turned off and out of the classroom. Dressel says Chromebooks will still be provided during class time for educational purposes, and students will be allowed to have smart watches given they are either not connected to a cellular plan, or they are not getting continuous notifications during class.