Hello Black Tiger Families,

Hope you are staying warm and dry during this crazy weather.  As we enter into February, we will be returning to normal restroom procedures. We appreciate the many conversations that have been taking place at home and the support that parents have been giving the school. We are asking that you continue to have these similar conversations around cell phone usage. Bolich’s cell phone rules state that cell phones will be locked in lockers from 8am-2:50 pm each day- Bell to Bell. This means they would not be using them during school for any reason and any student needing to contact home will come to the office to access a phone. 

There is a great deal of interesting research surrounding the harm that devices, specifically cell phones do to the human brain. “Multiple studies link addictive relationships with mobile devices to mental health problems in teens, including depression, anxiety, and disrupted sleep. Neuroscience tells us that tweens’ and teens’ developing brains make them especially vulnerable to both addiction and mental health crises.” (Greatschool.org) Please use the attached link to read the full article.  In school we are seeing more and more cyberbullying and inappropriate socialization than ever before.  Students are thriving on the dopamine release that social media & their phones give them. 

An interesting article from Harvard discusses how cell phones are changing our brains and society as a whole. “While there is nothing inherently addictive about smartphones themselves, the true drivers of our attachments to these devices are the hyper-social environments they provide. Thanks to the likes of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and others, smartphones allow us to carry immense social environments in our pockets through every waking moment of our lives. Though humans have evolved to be social—a key feature to our success as a species—the social structures in which we thrive tend to contain about 150 individuals. This number is orders of magnitude smaller than the 2 billion potential connections we carry around in our pockets today. There is no doubt that smartphones provide immense benefit to society, but their cost is becoming more and more apparent.” (Harvard University)

Please take a few minutes to read the linked articles and do your own deep dive of your own.  There is a great deal of new research regarding cell phones, social media and other devices.  They are causing anxiety, depression and social disconnect that are extra challenges for parents and educators.  We appreciate your support in talking to your children about locking up their cell phones during the school day. 

Respectfully,

Mrs. Walter