Candidate Walsh backs bell-to-bell phone limits for younger grades, calls for EdTech re-evaluation

In a Brookline Interactive interview, Laura Banes Walsh described classroom policies and a district approach she would favor on technology: a strict ban on phone use during school for younger students, scaffolded responsibility for older students, and a push to reassess district investments in educational technology.

"We have had a bell-to-bell ban on technology on cell phones for years now," Walsh said, describing her school’s practice of locking phones for fifth through eighth graders. For older students she said phones must be "away" — in backpacks or lockers — and teachers can grant permission if a student needs a phone for a specific task. Walsh said administrators confiscate phones for the remainder of the day if students use them without permission.

On district EdTech, Walsh said pandemic-era purchases (Chromebooks and software) were made under emergency conditions and that, in her view, many systems now question whether the investment produced lasting pedagogical improvements. "Students learn better with direct instruction as opposed to videos," she said, arguing that younger learners particularly benefit from paper-and-pencil instruction and that a return to fewer devices in lower grades could be both pedagogically and fiscally beneficial.

Walsh said she supports differentiated policy by age group and wants the school committee to set clearer guidance that balances student well-being, classroom management and instructional goals. The candidate tied phone and EdTech policies to broader priorities of supporting students’ social-emotional health and classroom engagement.

The host, State Rep. Tommy Vitolo, framed the question by noting recent statehouse action on phone use and asking Walsh to differentiate phone rules from EdTech decisions; Walsh responded by describing practices at her own school and saying she would work to build district policy consistent with developmental needs.