Spokane Public Schools urged students to spend today’s semester break by “Engaging in Real Life.” That’s the mantra the district adopted when it enacted bans on student cell phone use during most of the school day.
SPS and LaunchNW partnered with the city to provide a family-friendly Winterfest day at Riverfront Park.
“You're not going to win the battle if it's just, ‘Hey, put your screen away, put your screen away,’ said LaunchNW Executive Director Ben Small. “We need to be able to say to our kids, ‘Put your screen away and this is what you can do instead.’”
Students had free access to the Skate Ribbon and the Looff Carousel. The Mobius Discovery Center offered science activities. Families engaged with organizations such as Spokane Youth Sports, Inland Empire Diving and the Greater Spokane Chess League, which set up tables in the Pavilion for the day.
One of the most popular events was a question-and-answer session with members of the cast and crew of The Lion King, which is on stage at the First Interstate Center for the Arts for the next two weeks.
“We have an opportunity to change a lot of the educational
outcomes for our youth, whether that's attendance, grades, discipline, whether that is also mental health. We just believe that face-to-face relationships are really important,” Small said.
Small says LaunchNW and Spokane Public Schools have developed formal relationships with organizations such as Feast World Kitchen, River City Youth, Manzanita House and the Carl Maxey Center.
“We're asking all of our youth serving organizations to let us know and share data with us so that we can check what we don't know and who's engaged in school activities,” he said.
Small says the Engage IRL message seems to be getting through as some schools are experiencing increased attendance and a reduced need for student discipline.
