MANSFIELD — Attention, Tyger parents: Don’t expect your student to text you back during math class, or any other class, this year.
The Mansfield City Schools board of education voted Tuesday night to adopt a new policy cracking down on the use of cell phones during school hours.
The policy prohibits students from using cell phones on school grounds during school hours, including at lunch. Students must keep their phones in their lockers for the entire school day.
Children who need to call home can do so using the office phone in their building.
Mansfield City’s old cell phone policy already prohibited the use of cell phones during the school day.
But the new policy has clear consequences if a student breaks the rules. Those include:
- 1st Offense: Give the student a verbal warning and require the student to place the phone in their locker.
- 2nd Offense: Give the student a verbal warning and require the student to store the cell phone in the main office until the end of the school day, to be picked up by the student.
- 3rd Offense: Place the student’s cell phone in the school’s main office for the remainer of the school day. The cell phone must be picked up by a parent or guardian. Schedule a conference with the parent to discuss the student’s cell phone usages.
- 4th offense: In-school detention. This is also for repeat offenders who continue to break the rules.
The policy does allow for exceptions if a student with an individualized education plan (IEP) has a documented reason for using their cell phone in class.
Brad Strong, president of the Mansfield School Employees Association, said he thinks teachers will appreciate the new policy’s clarity on how to enforce cell phone rules. 
Treasurer Barbara Donohue and Supt. Stan Jefferson of Mansfield City Schools, during a board meeting. 
Chris Elswick, president of the Mansfield City Schools board of education 
Gary Feagin
Why a new policy?
In May, Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 250 into law. The bill requires school districts to adopt a cell phone policy that emphasizes limited use during school hours and reduced distractions in classrooms.
Supporters of the bill, including Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, have argued that limiting cell phone use will improve mental health and boost student success.
“As I have traveled the state and spoken with schools about their smartphone policies, the feedback is unanimous. You improve student academic performance and reduce bullying and disciplinary issues when you get phones out of the classroom,” Husted said in May.
Mansfield’s new policy is based largely on a model policy from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
The deadline to adopt a cell phone policy is July 2025, but Supt. Stan Jefferson said some area school districts have already done so.
Chris Elswick, Jennifer Kime and Leslie Ward voted in favor of the policy after a brief discussion Tuesday night. Linda Golden was absent from the meeting. Gary Feagin cast the sole ‘nay’ vote.
“I see teachers spending a whole lot of time trying to enforce something that they’re not going to be able to enforce,” Feagin said.
Before the vote, board member Jennifer Kime suggested getting more feedback from the community and other schools.
“I just wonder if there’s value in taking time to really talk to parents and students, other schools and saying, ‘How is this going to function on a day-to-day basis?’ so we’re not in a situation where we were with the dress code, where the teachers were spending their whole day enforcing the code and we we didn’t have the structure there,” she said.
Andrea Moyer, the district’s director of school improvement and safety, vouched for implementing the policy sooner rather than later.
Moyer cited her experience working at Malabar Intermediate, where students are already required to hand their phones over during the school day.
“When we did this at Malabar, it took a while,” she said. “But the students will learn that this is the way that things are going to be.”
Brad Strong, a Malabar teacher and president of the Mansfield School Employees Association, agreed.
“If you guys decide to table this, we’ll still have to implement it next year,” he said to the board. “It’d be a good idea to do a trial run this year.”
Winston Greene, the district’s test coordinator, also spoke in favor of limiting students’ cell phone use.
“(Students) need to be concentrating on what the teacher is trying to impart to them. We are trying to prepare our students to be productive citizens in this world,” he said. “They are so full of distractions and that is one distraction that we can eliminate.”
Greene also emphasized the need to enforce whatever policy is in place.
“Students need to learn that there are positive and negative consequences to every decision that they make,” he said. “That’s the real world.”
Board president Chris Elswick ultimately called for a vote to approve the policy.
“We’re doing this anyway. It’s a mandate from the governor. I think it’s best to go ahead and get going on it,” he said.
“I think it’s best to let them find out what the issues are with the policy, because they’ll find out pretty quick, and work those out, make changes when necessary and go from there.”
Student code of conduct updated to include AI, clarify consequences for THC use
The board also voted to update the school’s code of conduct to include artificial intelligence in its academic dishonesty and plagiarism section.
“We don’t want the students relying on AI to do the work for them,” Moyer said.
“There are some situations maybe if they’re going to do data analysis or research where that can be used. We already have that in our technology safety acceptance policy, so that’s already in there.”
The code of conduct was also updated to prohibit the possession, carrying, selling or attempting to sell, distributing or concealing of any substance with any amount of THC.
Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC, is a psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant. It’s a common ingredient in vapes, which often contain much higher concentrations of THC than the marijuana plant.
Moyer said the district already prohibited THC, but that existing policy was “vague” regarding enforcement.
“It made it sound like it needed to be more of a higher level of THC,” she said. “We don’t have time for our resource officer to test whether it’s a little bit or a big amount.
“Now if there’s THC in it, there’s going to be a consequence.”
