In the earlier installments of this editorial series, we considered a couple of the conversations that took place at the May 13 Archuleta School District Board of Education meeting… namely, a discussion about a possible future bond measure to build one or more new school buildings or to repair and upgrade the existing buildings… and a separate discussion about ‘restructuring’ the reading interventions at Pagosa Springs Elementary School.
Near the end of that May 13 meeting, the School Board began a discussion about smartphone use, and a possible policy around such use.
District Superintendent Rick Holt introduced the policy discussion.
“Tonight, we are bringing you what you might call a ‘first reading’ or ‘preview’ of a policy. The policy was first worked on by myself and the building leaders, heavily influenced by our shared experience reading The Anxious Generation. which is one of the leading research [studies] and just a general discussion around the effects of cell phones on students in schools, and actions that schools and school boards can take.
“So there are two versions included in the agenda this evening…”
We will be looking more closely at those policy versions, later in this editorial series. But first, I’d like to briefly introduce the ideas that are considered in The Anxious Generation, a bestselling book by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, published in 2024.
I was able to find that book on the shelf at the Ruby Sisson Library. It bears the inscription, “Donated by Pagosa Springs Middle School Library, Pagosa Springs, CO”.
Mr. Haidt proposes that we are seeing a surge in mental health issues — anxiety, depression, suicide, etc. — among the young people typically referred to a s ‘Gen Z’. These young people, born between 1995 and 2010, were the first generation, around the globe, to come into adulthood during the Age of the Internet.
More specifically, this generation was the first to experience the impacts of social media and constant smartphone access during their childhood and teen years.
On top of their exposure to a profit-driven technological revolution — the effects of which we are only beginning to understand — these same young people were deprived of what might be described as a “normal childhood”, by an anxious, over-protective parenting. This over-protected childhood experience resulted from parental fears about allowing children to play freely, unsupervised, out of doors.
According to Mr. Haidt, the impacts of these two social trends — too much unsupervised smartphone use, and a simultaneous lack of unsupervised outdoor play — has created a generation beset by mental health issues.
What is the proper role of our public schools, if indeed Mr. Haidt has correctly identified some causes of mental illness among our young people?
Pagosa’s six public schools…
…Pagosa Springs Elementary School (grades K-4), Pagosa Springs Middle School (grades 5-8), Pagosa Springs High School (grades 9-12), San Juan Mountain School (grades 9-12), Pagosa Peak Open School (K-8 Charter) and Pagosa Family School (aimed at homeschooling families, grades K-8)…
…exist for a number of reasons. For one, the Colorado Constitution requires our state government to provide “a thorough and uniform system of free public schools”. In order to operate that system, the state government created the Colorado Department of Education to provide for the licensing of teachers, the distribution of state funding, and the creation of bureaucratic policies and regulations.
An impressive number of bureaucratic policies and regulations. I refer to them as “bureaucratic” because they are created for, and enforced upon, students and staff that the creators have never met, and will never meet.
The schools also exist to teach certain useful skills to our children — mainly reading, writing, and math, but also perhaps music and the arts, football, chemistry, home economics, welding, etc. — and to introduce children to history and the social sciences. Some of the useful skills are much less useful than they were 50 years ago. When I studied high school calculus in 1970, for example, I was still using a slide rule. That type of calculation can now be done by ChatGPT in a fraction of the time, and more accurately, as well.
Some of the skills needed in 2025, we could not even imagine in 1970.
A certain middle school skill set, that didn’t exist in 1970, was on display at the May 13 School Board meeting. I’m referring to a short series of video interviews filmed by Pagosa Springs Middle School eighth graders, using their phones. The video shared the students’ concern that many of their fellow eighth graders were vaping in the school restrooms, and explained that the PSMS Student Council was raising money to fund ‘vape detectors’ for the restrooms, so staff could be alerted when this forbidden behavior was taking place.
One student suggested that perhaps 50% of the Middle School eighth graders were vaping, at least occasionally.
Our schools also exist to provide a convenient and safe place for children to spend a portion of their daytime hours while their parents are working. The question central to today’s editorial installment is not around convenience, however. It’s around ‘safety’ and in particular, around ‘mental health’ and ‘physical health’.
During the School Board conversation around vaping at the MIddle School, we learned from Middle School Assistant Principal Janae Ash that a brand of vape detectors had been tested by the administration, and had proved less than helpful due to consistent false alarms.
Ms. Ash addressed the School Board:
“At the beginning of the school year, Student Council… Ms. Hinger, she’s in charge of that, and she always asks the kids, ‘What are you passionate about? What do you want to change?’ and unanimously, they said that vaping is an issue in our school.
“And as a lot of you know, it is really hard to catch kids vaping. We have teachers in the bathroom at every passing period. Anytime I’m walking the halls, I obviously go into the women’s restroom, [Principal Chris] Hinger goes into the gentlemen’s restroom.
“And they have made vapes so it’s just really hard to catch kiddos. Cigarette smoke was really distinguishable. Vape smoke is a lot like girls’ perfume. It’s sweet.
“So our kids are speaking up and saying, we need more. Just observation and proximity is not enough…”
She said the vape detectors are “extremely expensive” and she praised the Student Council for their fundraising efforts.
According to my limited research, vape detectors are priced between $150 and $3,000, but the real cost is in connecting the detector to the school’s security system and, in some cases, paying a monthly subscription fee to the detector manufacturer.
The PSMS curriculum teaches about the effects of vaping in their physical health curriculum, we were told. But maybe more is needed? To keep kids safe?