Forming Digital Disciples: St. Catherine of Siena Rolls-Out New Social Media Policy

After countless discussions about behavior issues arising from student’s use of social media over the past few years, St. Catherine of Siena School (SCS) Principal Maria LaFleur decided to act. LaFleur formed a committee last school year comprised of parents, parishioners, Father Tim Hedrick (parish priest) and teachers to address the situation and look at best practices for the benefit of the students and the school.

“As educators we know that students need to be comfortable to learn, if they are worried about social anxiety, it makes it difficult for them to learn and a lot of research has come out recently to support this idea,” she said. “We wanted to construct a social media policy that was strong, but that could be phased in taking into account the older students that might already be using social medial platforms.”

A survey of school parents conducted a few years ago indicated 50% buy in to a school-wide social media policy. Since then research began uncovering the impact social media had on younger students physically, on their brains impeding their learning and social anxiety was becoming more prevalent. LaFleur found that as more information and research came out and parents realized the negative impact of social media on students, even more started to lean towards wanting a social media policy in the school. 

Last year, she put together a committee of six, people to develop the social medial policy, and it was released to school families at end of the school year for parents and students to review and sign prior to the 2025-26 school year.

“The new policy may not be a perfect solution, but it’s a start. We want to give parents a tool and support them in upholding their beliefs, and we need to make an effort and a strong statement to protect the students,” LaFleur said. “We can’t keep doing the same thing without getting results. The parents’ reaction has been very positive and supportive compared to four years ago and this is probably because of the new research that has come out about anxiety in middle school students and parents experiencing it first-hand.”

According to the new SCS social media policy, the mission of the school includes promoting the development of virtue in their students. The development of virtuous behavior applies to all aspects of life, including the use of digital technology. A compelling and growing body of data demonstrates the harms to children resulting from social media use. To support parental efforts to place appropriate limitations on their children’s use of technology and to help students form healthy and responsible habits of technology usage, SCS is phasing in a new social media policy as follows: 

“The policy is monitored through the honor system, the best we can,” LaFleur said. “Upholding the policy might be difficult with the honor policy, but we are a Catholic school, and we teach and preach honesty so we are hopeful that everyone who signed the policy will do their part. And there are serious consequences for violations which are spelled out very clearly in the policy which include detention and dismissal from extracurricular activities for the first violation and expulsion for the fourth violation.”

Realizing that it’s harder to take something away at first, this year the school decided to let the sixth and seventh grade students opt into the policy, so they did not have to be totally off social media right away. About 50% of the sixth grade opted in this year.

“We are trying to make this a positive experience for the students with big rewards and incentives for participating,” LaFleur said. “Students who signed the policy this year can wear any tennis shoes they want all year long, and each quarter a basket raffle is held for those students that are participating in the social media policy. “

Next year, the social media policy will apply to all students enrolled at the school regardless of grade level. In addition to the social media policy, SCS also routinely talks to the students about the negative effects of social media through speakers and presentations.

“Our overall goal is to keep students young as long as possible and keep them and their mental health protected as much as we can while alleviating anxiety,” said LaFleur. “Even if we help a few students with this policy, it’s worth it. “This is a way to support parents in keeping their children safe longer until they are older and have the mental capacity to deal with everything associated with social media.”