Classrooms may look slightly different in Arkansas, and the Pine Bluff School District will soon show how different.
The same day schools open to students in the district — next Monday — the Pine Bluff Faith Community Coalition Ministerial Alliance will lead a conference at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center promoting the display of a 16-inch-by-20-inch durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments in each K-12 and college classroom. Act 573 of this year’s legislature, which the Arkansas Civil Liberties Union Foundation challenged in a June 11 federal lawsuit against four Northwest Arkansas districts, requires the posting of the Commandments and an 11-inch-by-14-inch display of “In God We Trust.”
The law goes into effect Aug. 5, but PBSD Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree said the items will be posted when they receive them from the Ministerial Alliance.
“I am a Christian, and I believe in the Ten Commandments,” Barbaree said Monday after the PBSD convocation at Pine Bluff First Assembly on Ridgway Road. “I would say that our local Ministerial Alliance has volunteered to provide the Ten Commandments at the specs the law requires and we will post them as following the law, because that’s what we will do and we will be appreciative to our community stakeholders, the Ministerial Alliance that is providing that for us.”
Barbaree added that while she grew up knowing the Ten Commandments, Act 573 is a “hot topic” that’s hard for one to be on the fence about.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
It won’t be the only major act regarding education for this school year. Act 122, the Bell to Bell, No Cell Act, is already law and requires school districts to prohibit the use of a personal electronic device during the day. The PBSD will provide Yondr-brand pouches students can use to lock their smartphones and other devices in when they enter school and unlock when the school day ends.
The district had already enforced a rule banning cellphones during class except during downtime before the act was signed into law.
“Do I believe students are ready to pivot to this? No. Do I believe parents are ready to pivot to this? No,” Barbaree said. “I think this is a big deal that we’re going to have to retrain our students and our parents. When I say retrain, I mean the brain itself because they’re so used to (having) instant gratification in the palm of their hands.”
Carmen Bell, a first grade teacher at James Matthews Elementary, said the no-cell act doesn’t affect her because she turns off her phone during work.
“If it’s an emergency, my folks know to call the office,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to affect the teachers at all.”
Crystal Barnes, a biology and environmental science teacher at Pine Bluff High School, doesn’t think Act 122 will be a problem, but she believes teachers will have to be innovative and “extremely” engaging for students as they adjust to life without having access to their devices.
“I was in school at a time when we couldn’t have our phones, but we did, and we respected the fact that we were in class,” Barnes said. “We’re just going back to the days where things worked.”
During a daylong trial run in May, Barnes said, students did well adapting to the new policy, although some challenges in enforcing it were faced.
“A lot of them, they didn’t have a problem with it,” she said. “Some of them tried to find ways around it. Of course that’s expected, but we had some data to take back to the drawing board on how to execute and make sure we implement the Bell to Bell, No Cell Act.”
Barnes said she discovered many of her students learn hands-on, so bringing more visual aids to her classroom is something she sees as key.
“I need to give them something to put their hands on, and with science that’s easy to do. Other disciplines may have a challenge with it, but like I said, it’s all about being innovative and finding new ways to teach your students. With AI, it can kind of assist you in giving you suggestions and ways to feed the students and keep them engaged.”
Although Barnes considers Act 573 a “touchy” subject, she doesn’t agree such a law should be forced upon students.
“Students need to have the freedom and the autonomy to still believe what they believe,” she said. “I wholeheartedly believe in the Lord, so I’m not against the Ten Commandments, because I actually work daily to follow them. However, like I said, students need the freedom and autonomy to believe in what they want to believe in because this is supposed to be a free world.”