Administration considers restricting phone use next year

By Owen Perry

The Judge administration is considering some restrictions on student phone use next year. Some teachers would like to see phones banned completely while others consider them important to the learning that happens in their classroom. While the potential policy is still being considered, there’s no shortage of opinions.

“We've yet to implement a new policy,” Mr. Lambert said. “But I think what we're looking to do is put feelers out and try to determine what are some ways we can help support our students. What are some ways that we can create an environment that is distraction-free here at the school. We've yet to implement a new policy, but we are trying to gather as much information as we can to see how we can implement one that's effective.”

Today adolescents have become extremely reliant on their phones. It’s getting to the point that 90% of our lives are on the phone.

“There's no question that phones are a necessary part of life today,” Mr. Jewett said. “The progress that humanity has made utilizing phones and technology is unquestionable.”

No one denies there are a lot of useful academic tools that the phone can help with. There are a lot of educational purposes for them to be used in class.

Designed for distraction

“The problem that I see with phones is the dependency that we have. They’ve become incredibly addictive,” Mr. Jewett said.

“At first, I thought that cell phones are going to offer a really unique opportunity to bring technology into the classroom in a very good way,” Dr. Dasch Houdeshel said. “The Science Department has invested thousands of dollars in lab equipment that interfaces with cell phones. But over the last four or five years, I have seen cell phones being used way more for things like cyberbullying, taking inappropriate pictures of other students and teachers, and posting and referencing inappropriate material. 

“And so over the last three or four years, I've definitely come around to thinking that overall, the cell phone is a net detractor from the student experience.”

Science teacher Dr. Ayton agreed. 

“There was a time when I actually quite supported having cell phones in class,” Dr. Ayton said. “They're handy devices, they've got a calculator on them. You could take pictures of slides. I often work through problems in class, and you could take a picture of that. I like that. But something has happened recently that has me concerned. I don't know what it is. It could be some app that has appeared. But what I've seen is that normally intelligent, articulate young people – whose company I really do enjoy – I see them temporarily lose their minds. And and all of a sudden, there's no conversation, there's no discussion. It looks like people are taking pictures of their toes or something. At this point, I do not think cell phones should be allowed in classrooms and should not be allowed in halls.” 

There’s no denying that phones can be distracting in class. Others have noticed the toll they can take on many teens’ mental health.

“Screentime messes with students' brain-wave patterns and sleeping habits,” counselor Ms. Sara Strickland said. “Social media can really be detrimental to self-confidence and body image issues. I think students can get into this pattern of wanting everything right away and not having to really think about their own opinions or thinking about what might be best for them. Everything is just so instantaneous through their phones.”

Teachers claim that along with the mental health issues that phones bring, they are extremely distracting, especially in a classroom setting. The rings, dings and notifications that happen can shift the focus away from the lesson. And different teachers have different levels of uses for them in their classroom.

“My cell phone policy is that when a student comes into my classroom, they need to put their cell phones in these baskets that I have up on my front bench, and then they pick them up at the end of the class,” said Ms. Klebba. “I don't allow cell phones in my class. Since I’ve done this I've noticed that kids actually talk to each other a little bit more, interact with each other a little bit more and are less distracted by their pockets vibrating. As I walk down the hallways, I see kids are constantly looking at their cell phones and they're not interacting with the people around them. I think we're losing some interpersonal skills because of that.”

The majority of the information on the internet today is not always very reliable, and when some students try to find the answers to questions on homework or even something they’re just wondering about, most will look it up on their phones. But this creates a mindset like “okay I’ve got the answer,” and then moving on and not thinking more about the question.

Social interaction and curiosity

On the Oceanography class’s trip to Catalina this fall Dr Dasch also noticed how students learned and interacted differently without their phones.

“The two biggest things I saw on Catalina was that first, the kids talked to whoever they were with. They didn't talk to only their friends on their phones,” Dr. Dasch said. 

“So they would start up a conversation with someone.Then that would lead to this sense of wonderment and this sense of wanting to explore. And so instead of just looking something up on their phone, they would actually go and try and discover the answer. And that was one of the neatest things. Instead of sitting and playing a video game on their phone, a lot of the kids who had nothing to do went out and looked for things on the beach, or they looked for someone else who they could interact with. And so it was really that sense of adventure and looking and discovery that I think the cell phones take away.”

Most everyone agrees that constant phone use isn’t good.

“There is something to be said for detaching ourselves from communication and learning that kind of self control and temperance,” English teacher Mr. Vanderlaan said. “Do I think it should be a universal ‘no cell phone’ policy? Not so much.There's so much I use cell phones in my class. And I like students to have that as a resource in case that's something that our lesson calls for.”

And even those teachers who don’t allow students to use access their phones in their classes don’t think a complete ban is a good idea

“Phones are an essential part of their being almost it's it's getting to the point where you cannot to separate yourself from your phone,” Mr. Jewett said. “To do that, during the school day, and then taking it from you and then giving it back to you at the end of the school day would create this massive disparity in your day-to-day life where you're either super-addicted to your phone or you're just cut off completely. That may not be healthy either.”

Mr. Vanderlaan thinks it matters more what you're doing on your phone, not simply amount of time on phones. 

Phones can aid learning

“I honestly keep my cell phone with me all the time,” Mr. Vanderlaan said. “I use it constantly because it is an amazing tool. But I think there's a misunderstanding of when it's being used as a tool and productively versus when it's being used for the purposes of wasting time or unproductively.”

Some have said that students don’t really need phones since we can use our laptops for learning. But the people who see phones as tools say that phones can do some things more easily than computers can, like take photos, and they can be accessed more quickly. Laptops don’t have everything a phone has.

Many of the teachers feel that the answer is in educating students about how to use their phones the right way.

Rationale for the change

“If cell phones are just banned outright with no explanation,” Mr. Vanderlaan said, “that's going to cause a lot of people to be upset. But if we say this is about focus in class. Here's the research to support that having that phone on you means you're distracted this much. Here's the research to show that by constantly engaging with it, it's detracting from your ability to focus or absorb new information. If we can support that with good data driven arguments, then I think it's going to be more accepted.”

Dr. Ayton also thinks the whole school needs to understand why there needs to be a new policy.

“I would much rather that we come to a mutual agreement. And understanding that this is a place of learning it is a learning community, and that having cell phones is a distraction to learning.

Mr. Lambert emphasized that there’s no new policy, yet.

“What it comes down to is that we’ll create the policy because we love our students. We want to create an environment that is as distraction-free as we can. We want to create an environment that's as safe as possible. If our students' safety and wellness is the priority, then I can take the jabs that come from folks saying that we're trying to make life more difficult – which we're not.”

Not all issues would be solved by taking phones away. The administration feels restricting phone use might be a step to decrease some of the problems. Students believe they should be allowed to use their phones and that there should be some exceptions to use phones in classes where the teacher approves it.