This Western Massachusetts High School is Banning Smartphones on Campus

A small prep school in Western Massachusetts has released new guidelines on cell phone usage on campus.

Buxton School, located in Williamstown, Massachusetts in northern Berkshire County, bills itself as a small, progressive, and diverse all-gender boarding and day college preparatory school that has been in existence for almost 100 years.

According to the school, their mission statement is "To create an environment where truly progressive education can be lived every minute of every day, where learning is personal, meaningful, equitable, and relevant. By doing this, we equip Buxton students and alumni to be deeply reflective and creative builders and shapers of every community they touch."

In an unprecedented move, the administration has announced new regulations surrounding smartphones that will affect the 90 person student body as well as staff members.

Starting in the upcoming 2022-2023 school year, smartphones of any kind will be banned on campus for students and staff. Cell phones that do not connect to the internet such as flip phones or light phones will be allowed.

We didn’t come to this decision quickly or lightly, but we embrace it wholeheartedly... The list of reasons is long and familiar to all of us at this point. Constant access to everyone and everything—pinged directly into our pockets, into our ears, onto our wrists—is not helping us to know and love ourselves, know and love each other. It doesn’t give anyone any space, time, or quiet—all essential aspects of the wellbeing that we are trying to cultivate here. Mental and emotional wellbeing, absolutely. But also: intellectual wellbeing, creative wellbeing, physical wellbeing, and social wellbeing. The fundamental structure of Buxton is that we are a community of fewer than a hundred people, living together face-to-face in our corner of the Berkshire mountains. Deeply, purposefully, here, now, in person

Statement on New Cell Phone Police from

Buxton Administration

Students on campus will still have access to the internet, just not via their phones. Computers for students are not only allowed but encouraged.