Citing various safety concerns, Dean of Students, Mr. James Stanley announced the schools’s decision to officially ban the use of hoverboards on Choate’s campus at an all-school meeting on February 23.
Mr. Stanley said, “It’s hard to ignore the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission declaring that ‘no hoverboards currently on the market can be deemed safe.’ When the government says there isn’t one of them that is safe, it is hard to go ahead and say, ‘Hey it’s safe. It’s okay.’”
In February, the product safety commission has reported more than 48 incidents of the hoverboards catching on fire in February, destroying furniture and even homes. Though hoverboard companies have claimed that the low quality lithium-ion batteries are to blame, the product safety commission is currently investigating the products as a whole. As of January, the commission was investigating 13 hoverboard brands.
Mr. Stanley went on, “Nobody was in favor of continuing to allow it. The senior officers made the ultimate decision, but it was also discussed by form deans, and everyone was in agreement that hoverboards should be banned.” However, had added, “Choate has been talking about finding the right time to ban it. We want to do it near a vacation, so students can take them home”
He continued, “We try to do it at a time that would make sense for students to adjust quickly to. We did not think there was a need to act midwinter.” Mr. Stanley’s announcement came just before the start of Choate’s Spring Break.
The idea to ban hoverboards arose after the Dean of Eleven Schools Conference the Choate deans attended in January. Deans from Choate, along with those from Phillips Exeter Academy, Phillips Academy Andover, St. Paul’s School, Deerfield Academy, The Hotchkiss School, North Hill Mount Hermon, Choate Rosemary Hall, The Taft School, Loomis Chaffee, Blaire Academy, and The Hill School, gathered to share and discuss the issues and concerns at the schools.
During that conference, deans mentioned hoverboards and hoverboard bans. By the end of January, St. Paul’s, Exeter, and Brooks School had announced to students that hoverboards were not allowed on campus.
As Mr. Stanley said, “Every other school at the Conference has already banned hoverboards.”
Choate has a similar ban on motorized vehicles, which is listed in the student handbook. Mr. Stanley remarked, “In my years at Choate, we have never allowed students to have motorized scooters.”
Students who have used hoverboards on campus agree with the rationale behind the ban. Asher Kassinove ‘19 said, “I think that they need to take precautions and banning them was part of it. I believe they took the necessary measure to ensure safety.” He added, “Of course I wish I still had mine, but in all honesty I believe it was for the better.”
“Taking into account the inherent design flaws in hoverboards, and the damage they may cause, I think that the school’s decision is an entirely responsible one,” Grayson Brunjes ’18 said. “However, though the decision to disallow hover boards was well justified, it definitely took some fun out of the dorms.”
