The blue phone caddy with yellow numbers is part of sophomore Marissa Miller’s daily routine.
Miller walks into English class, puts her phone in slot eight, sits down and then watches as almost every one of her peers pulls out their computer to play racing games during her teacher’s daily announcements.
“I think it is because [students are] trying to do everything other than listen, because they’re trying to fight this phone ban,” Miller said.
The phone ban, effective as of Feb. 3, requires phones to be out of sight at all times during the school day except for educational purposes or during lunch and passing periods.
However, nine months into the ban, it has caused mixed responses from students and teachers about its effectiveness.
According to Spanish teacher Abra Scanlon, the phone ban has caused more problems than before in her classroom.
Before the phone ban, Scanlon allowed students to use their phones to work on their weekly Duolingo or join their daily class Blookets. Now, her students struggle to use Duolingo, as the platform is challenging to work with on a MacBook, and she can no longer trust kids to put their phones away again after using it for a class activity.
The blatant disrespect is a significant contributor to this distrust, according to Scanlon.
Almost every day, Scanlon is met with groans, eye rolls and complaints when she asks her students to put their phones away.
“Before the phone ban, I do feel like they listened better because it wasn’t a rule,” Scanlon said. “And now because it’s a rule, they want to make me feel like I’m not being the cool teacher [for not letting them have their phones].”
Scanlon, though she likes the idea of the ban, doesn’t think it’s useful unless every teacher sticks with their classroom policies.
“If we’re not all following the same rules and patterns and implementing it, it’s not setting up a routine,” Scanlon said. “There’s no routine for [students] to follow.”
French teacher Gina Baker agrees with Scanlon that teachers need to be on the same page, however she has experienced the benefits of the phone ban in her classroom.
Since the start of the year, Baker has begun every class by telling her students to put their phones up and take a seat. Though this improves student engagement, she thinks the students would have an easier time if they followed the same pattern in every class — regardless of the teacher.
“What I don’t love is that we’re not all on the same page, teachers and educators, and that’s very difficult, not only for teachers, but for the kids too,” Baker said.
Baker wants the other teachers to see what her classroom is like — the open engagement, minimal distractions and increased productivity.
“I wish I could show teachers of all of the classrooms that difference,” Baker said. “See the difference in students. See the difference in going into a classroom where you don’t have to put away your phones and a classroom where you do have to put away your phones.”
According to freshman Finn Arnold, the phone ban has helped him focus in class. Arnold experienced a stricter phone policy at Indian Hills Middle School which he said has helped make having no access to his phone easier during classes. Indian Hills Middle School’s policy was that phones were to be put away in lockers all day.
“It’s keeping learning simple and not bringing in so much [distractions],” Arnold said. “We have our MacBooks, [so] we don’t need another piece of technology in learning.”
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