Bannockburn Elementary PTA

Principal Serino: 

We have recently started a community conversation about waiting until high school to give children smartphones and access to social media. Our next discussion on this topic will be on June 4th at 7pm on Zoom. The invitation to that event is linked here.

As a principal, I feel strongly that parents/caregivers should wait until high school to give their children smartphones and social media. As a parent, I regret that I gave my own children access in 7th grade.

Knowing everything that we know today, it is clear that waiting is one of the single best choices parents and caregivers of elementary-aged children can make to promote healthy, thriving children, and to prevent the unavoidable and serious mental, emotional, and safety harms and risks that are inherent when children have access to smartphones and social media. (Plus, smartphones are not permitted during the day at MCPS middle schools.) Instead, if parents and caregivers want to stay in touch with their increasingly independent kids after school hours, which I totally understand, they should strongly consider alternatives like smart watches (my kids had the Gizmo) or Internet-less phones.

I encourage parents and caregivers to attend our Zoom at 7pm on June 4th to learn how to band together to overcome this difficult collective action problem. And you can signal your commitment to this growing movement to other members of the community by taking the BES Parent Pledge and the Smart About Smartphone Pledge led by local Wood Acres Elementary parents.

Please see a link here with the invitation to the zoom call.