Almost every single student has a cell phone. The district has a cell phone policy, but almost every teacher on campus has a personal policy they enforce in their classrooms.

“In Precalculus and AP Language, we have to put our phones away,” junior Abonti Ferdous said. “We are not allowed to use it or have it out during class.”

PreAP English I and English II teacher Jennifer Whiffin collects students’ phones at the beginning of every class and returns each one at the end of the class.

“The first year I worked here, I didn’t and I noticed that I was constantly having to get my kids off of their phones and listen to me,” Whiffin said. “So, it became kind of like a distractor for the lessons and a friend of mine told me about this process and I tried it, and the kids were pretty reluctant at first but now I do it.”

Whiffin thinks that the problem stems from a social fear.

“I noticed that there is a real thing called FoMo-fear of missing out- and when kids see other kids texting and doing things on their phone, their natural response is they feel like they’re missing out on something so they too want to be on their phone,” Whiffin said. “But when everybody doesn’t have their phone, then it doesn’t make them feel like they’re missing out on anything and so the lesson is just much better for them and me.”

However, some teachers don’t confiscate student cell phones.

“I follow the school’s policies for the class, but sometimes I let them do research on their phones, like if they’re working on an activity, they can use it,” world geography teacher Jennifer Nelken said. “I just like for them to use technology for educational purposes so if I took their phones, they wouldn’t be able to use them.”

According to Ferdous, Frisco ISD’s phone policy could be considered lenient compared to at least one other state.

“In New York, we were never allowed to take out our phones or use it, save for a dire emergency,” Ferdous said. “If someone caught a student using their phone, their phones would be confiscated and the student’s parents would need to come to pick it up.”

Whatever the rules, Ferdous feels that phones are distracting.

“I think students should be allowed to use their phones in classrooms, for strictly academic purposes,” Ferdous said. “While cell phones do have the potential to enhance learning, excessive cell phone usage can prevent a student from being focused.”

Although many teachers encourage the use of electronic devices in class, Whiffin believes that mobile devices do little to enhance learning in her classroom.
“I think that there are some really great benefits to it when we’re doing things like on the spot research, trying to find out the meaning of words, when it’s longer to look through dictionaries and things like that,” Whiffin said. “However, it’s not, in my opinion, a lot of benefit in having a cell phone in an English classroom, to be honest.”