When students arrived at school on September 4th, they were met with a few new sights: purple and gold daily schedules on the wall, new ceiling tiles by the attendance desk (made by National Honor Society), and upon entering classrooms, containers for students to place their phones in.
The new district-wide cell phone policy (as sent home in late August) states: “Cellphones/smartphones/smartwatches and/or listening devices are permitted to be used by high school students only in a scheduled high school study hall or during a scheduled lunch period, or by K-12 students on District transportation.” To simplify, students are able to use their phones between classes, during community lunch, and during study halls, but that’s it. This is stricter than the system previously in place of simply not having students use their phones during instructional time.
To note, students with a medical condition which requires them to have their phone are exempt from this policy, but everyone else must follow these guidelines or their phone will be taken to the office for the remainder of the day, with different consequences per the number of offenses.
So what prompted the change in policy? And what do students and teachers think about it?
History of Cell Phone Policies in U.S. Classrooms
The history of cellphones in schools dates back to the 1990’s, where the rapidly increasing population of phones was banned. This ban lasted until the Columbine High School massacre, after which students and parents wanted to be able to keep in touch with each other, so phones became allowed and were later included in the classroom for academic purposes. This access has grown to the point where cell phone use has become an intrinsic part of high school life – being featured in everything from teen TV shows to full blown films. Still, in time, this free access to phones led to conflict between students/staff and a decreased interest in academics. But how did it play out closer to home?
At Rhinebeck, the history of our cell phone policy pretty much parallels the national trends, and began about 15 years ago, when the school recommended that cell phones not be displayed anywhere in the building. This proved difficult to implement though with so many areas of the building, and because “we wanted to say ‘good morning, how are you?’ [rather than ‘put your cell phone away’],” as shared by Ed Davenport, Rhinebeck High School principal. In addition, since this was in a time before each student was provided their own laptop, faculty expressed their desire for students to be able to use their phones for academic purposes. With this feedback, Rhinebeck’s policy shifted to say that cell phones could be used in class for academic work (with the permission of the teacher), in study halls, and on buses.
This continued until the pandemic, after which teachers noticed that phones had become a distraction. Since they also no longer served academic needs (because of our laptops), a change in policy was recommended. That is how we ended up with where we’re at today.
Student and Faculty Opinions
When asked what they thought about the new cell phone policy, what was good and what needed to be improved on, members of our school had a variety of opinions. Overall, the population did follow a few trends.
In general, students and faculty think this policy is better than what we had before. Interviewees pointed out how disrespectful phone use was while teachers were having a discussion, and how out of control everything got. New Physics teacher Mr. Mann even discussed how it was at his old school, detailing: “I saw bullying, I saw people on their cell phones when they should have been paying attention to class, I saw tons of really really inappropriate uses of cell phones, and so I reluctantly had to switch my position [to banning phones] because it was interfering with the learning.” So the consensus is that something had to change, but that doesn’t mean students agree with the change completely.
The biggest issue that students have with this change is that phones can’t be used even after finishing all of your work in class. They detailed how it can be a nice break at the end of the now longer instructional period(s), and one anonymous senior shared their perspective in relation to the change in schedule which also came about this year. “It just seems unnecessary if you’re not being rude or the class is over with one minute left and you’re just checking what class you have next period, because the schedule is now confusing. [If] I want to check what I have with my rotating blocks and I can’t? That’s annoying.”
In addition, students also have issue with how quick some teachers are to send them to the office. As of now, the majority of teachers are expected to and have been sending students to the office immediately. “I think perhaps there could be a warning of some kind first and then maybe you get sent there, but I think [right now] it’s just a bit too much, like it escalates too fast,” a perspective shared by junior Genevieve Wahlgren.
Jeremiah Boyd explains that he feels “like if you ask the teacher for permission that’d be fine,” but right now he’s not even able to text his mom about school related things, a situation mentioned by a variety of students. Right now, since students leave their phones in the classroom or study hall when going to the bathroom, they feel like they have no way to contact their parents.
“Sometimes I really need to get in touch with my parents and the only way to do that is to go to the bathroom,” explains freshman Laila Orr. Whether or not phones should be able to be used in the bathroom is a big topic of discussion, since in previous years students had been leaving class for nearly twenty minutes, yet when they finally did return, they did so with phone in hand. The administration noticed.
Davenport shared that “the faculty was beginning to sense and measure that cell phones were interfering with instructional time. That they were distracting students and taking them out of class,” he himself found students just standing around on their phones in the open-door boys bathrooms. So, while it may be less convenient to not just be able to take your phone to the bathroom, there are other options, and perhaps the student population would benefit from being provided what capabilities they have to contact their parents during the school day. In addition, Ms. Kufner explained how it may be for the better, sharing, “There’s a lot of things that go on with things in the bathroom that can be hurtful to other students and make our school be and feel less safe for certain students. So even though I know that one’s really annoying and hard to follow, I really do understand the importance of that.”
Finally, the final two biggest issues that students have with the policy is that cell phones are not able to be used in the library and what to do in case of an emergency. In regard to the library, a senior commented, “I’m not bothering anyone if I’m sitting in a bean bag chair in the corner of the library minding my business.” Students want to have the ability to use their phones to listen to music while they work, though this has already been phased out in English classes with the “Quiet Mind Space” model. Furthermore, students have expressed concern about what will happen if there is a lockdown or fire drill. “I think we should be able to keep our phones in case of an emergency,” expresses Hunter North, RHS sophomore. We don’t know how strictly the policy would be enforced in a situation like this, but it’s likely safe to assume you would be able to contact your loved ones.
To take a look at the difference between behind the desk and in front of it, many students have reported that in their opinion, cell phone use hasn’t gone down that much. So is the policy really effective, or have students just gotten better at hiding it? Let us know your thoughts and check out the online version of this story with full quotes from those we interviewed!
