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Mount Greylock Students Encouraged to Text Less
By Stephen Dravis, iBerkshires Staff
03:40PM / Tuesday, October 07, 2014
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Mount Greylock seniors Lucy Barrett and Ian Brink coordinated Monday's 'TextLess Live More' event, which coincided with a themed apparel day during the school's Spirit Week.


An initiative to reduce texting and social media distraction at Mount Greylock Regional School uses bracelets to remind students.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — There may have been just a little more chatter in the hallways and cafeteria at Mount Greylock Regional School on Monday.
 
And that was a good thing.
 
Organizers of the school's inaugural TextLess Live More event hope Monday's kickoff will help students at the junior-senior high school realize that there is more to life than what fits in the palms of their hands.
 
"We're trying to give a reminder to live your life and don't spend it all on your phone," Mount Greylock senior Ian Brink said.
 
"Instead of that — have conversations with your friends," classmate Lucy Barrett said. "Don't text them. Talk to them."
 
Brink and Barrett organized a preschool rally on Monday where they challenged students in grades 7 to 12 to go a whole day (until 2:30, at least) with their cell phones turned off.
 
Students who took the pledge were given light blue silicon bracelets with the TextLess Live More slogan stamped on them.
 
"Hopefully if they wanted to grab their phone, they'd see [the bracelet] on their wrist," Barrett said.
 
The TextLess campaign is a national movement started by the family of Merritt Levitan, the Boston area teenager who died in an accident involving a distracted driver while she participated in an Overland cross country bicycle tour in the summer of 2013.
 
Levitan's death hit home in Williamstown, where Overland is headquartered, and at Mount Greylock.
 
"A lot of kids in our community go on Overland trips," Barrett said. "When this tragedy happened, it definitely hit the everyone in the community hard."
 
To reduce the risk of distracted driving in the Mount Greylock community, Barrett and Brink distributed stickers for students to put on their cell phones that they hope will be a visual reminder the next time a driver reaches for his or her phone.
 
But Monday's event was about more than distracted driving, and it was open to students at all grade levels.
 
"It's about realizing you can live without your cell phone," Barrett said.
 
That's a lesson Barrett has learned herself in recent weeks.
 
"For about three weeks now, every day I turn my phone off and leave it in my mom's room for the day," she said. "I have deleted my Instagram and my Facebook, and it's been the best decision I've ever made.
 
"I focus in all my classes, get my homework done much quicker and never worry about drama through social media anymore."
 
The rally included public service announcements provided by the Merritt's Way Foundation, the non-profit started by Anna Cheshire Levitan and Rich Levitan. Students were presented statistics like the fact that the average teen spends 3 hours per day on the phone or computer.
 
Barrett said more than 300 students attended the rally, and many took the pledge.
 
"It was a little tough because it is Spirit Week, and Monday was 'patriotic shirt' day, so everyone was taking pictures," Barrett said. "But there were a fair amount of students with actual cameras."
 
Brink said that although the rally is a once a year event, the pair wants to put an announcement on the loudspeaker on the first Monday of each month to remind students to cut back on their phone usage.
 
"I'd say most of the students [on Monday] were following through," Brink said. "Obviously, there were a few who broke their vow, but for the most part they followed through."
 
Barrett agreed.
 
"At the end of the day, there were a ton of kids coming up to me and saying they did it," she said. "All the kids on my soccer team came and told me they did. That was great."
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