Phone Policy

As an unfortunate byproduct of phones buzzing, distractions to learning, and bullying; our school has a strict phone policy, now more than ever.

As I’m sure most people are aware of, we’re not allowed to have our phones out at all unless we’re at lunch.

This includes in the hallways, during passing periods, or even on our desks.

This causes a lot of resentment towards the school district, and even teachers, as students feel like there’s too much of a restraint on their technology usage.

You’ll often hear the retort, “Well, I would never do that.”

However, the promises from students who wouldn’t take advantage of the use of their cell phones isn’t enough to calm the minds of other students and teachers alike.

According to the student handbook, any device used to take pictures, videos, or audio recordings aren’t allowed and they are subject to confiscation or search.

The concerns of the school district are very real, with harassment and bullying being a prominent issue in our school.

Students often take pictures in the bathroom, around the school, or in classrooms and then post it.

Sometimes, the picture won’t even have someone else as the sole focus, they’ll simply be a background character.

That doesn’t matter to some people, though. They’ll zoom in and edit photos, spread it around and make fun of others or create instagram pages based around other people for their looks or interests.

This easily creates an even more hateful environment, especially when things can be posted anonymously and hardly ever get reported and taken down.

There’s also overall privacy, which tries to protect not only students, but teachers as well.

Unless you get permission from those involved, you’re not supposed to take or post content.

From an adult point of view, this is an understandable policy that is supposed to help us more than it will harm us.

Students often spend a lot of time on their phone with their screen time only increasing day by day. Having a no phone zone policy helps to decrease the amount of time spent on our phones (even though most of our work is on our iPads), but it also limits the amount of distractions present in our learning environment and can even be beneficial to our mental and physical health.

On the other hand, student concerns are also important, too.

If there were to ever be an emergency or dangerous situation and students needed to get into contact with their parents for whatever reason, it’s not particularly convenient to have to ask to go to your locker or feel anxious about possibly getting in trouble for having your phone out.

As much as our phones may be a distraction, they can also be a great tool when used properly that students should be taught how to navigate and explore safely.

-Danielle Harris, Writer