The recent article surrounding Easthampton High School librarian Nick Ames has raised important questions about libraries, reading, and cellphones. Easthampton lost a gifted librarian and educator. Rather than debate one person’s difficult decision, Nick’s action raises a larger question: What kind of school culture do we want for our children?
Schools do more than deliver instruction. They shape environments where students learn to think, solve problems, build relationships, and become members of a community. School culture reflects the choices schools make about what they value. Cellphones don’t just distract from learning — they shape that culture. Creating a culture of reading, learning, and human connection is not the responsibility of one librarian. It is a shared responsibility among teachers, administrators, families, our superintendent, and School Committee members.
As a technology teacher, I am anything but anti-technology. I teach students to think with technology: to solve problems, create, communicate, and understand when technology supports learning — and when it gets in the way of relationships and well-being.
A bell-to-bell cellphone policy won’t solve every challenge schools face, but it creates the conditions for students to engage with one another instead of primarily with their screens. It allows students to learn and teachers to focus on teaching instead of policing cellphone use.
As both an educator and the parent of a rising eighth grader who will enter Easthampton High School next year, I hope this conversation leads to action — not because it is about one librarian or one policy, but because it asks us to think carefully about the kind of school culture we want for our children.
If anything positive can come from losing Nick Ames, I hope it is a commitment to adopting a bell-to-bell cellphone policy in Easthampton High School. It is a critical step toward creating a school where students learn deeply, build relationships and thrive.
Andrea Marks
Easthampton