School districts all across the nation are implementing drastic phone policies to combat the rise of phone usage among teenagers. Many schools have opted for a full-on phone ban, but campus administration has taken a more moderate approach by issuing a mandatory cell phone policy mandating that students must put away their cellular device regardless of what class they’re in.
In class meetings the first week of school, assistant principal Richard Sabatier clarified the obligations and repercussions of the new policy.
“If you’re using your phone for something in class that day, then your teacher will be like ‘yeah, you can go ahead and grab it’,” Sabatier said. “Use it, but that is the expectation. Sometimes [during class], phones will be required and in that case, you’ll be able to access it.”
Frisco ISD hopes to eliminate the distractions that come with cell phone usage by making sure students don’t have phones on their person during class. Along with eliminating distractions, the new policy also aims to lower the risk of using cell phones to cheat on assessments.
“It’s easier because it’s a nice, uniform policy,” AP U.S. history teacher Whitney Schell said. People won’t have access to their phones where they can either put a sticky note on the back, or be able to get text messages, things like that, notes that they’ve made in their notes app; they just won’t be able to have access to it since it’s now going to be pretty stringent so hopefully that will help with [cheating].”
If students are found violating the cell phone policy, there will be lasting consequences.
“If it’s a first offense, your teacher will take away your phone for the rest of the class period, they’ll document it, and [the APs] will be notified,” Sabatier said. “Second offense – you will surrender it to the teacher and we’ll come down and you’ll have to get it from the AP office at the end of the day. Third offense, this is where things get interesting and hopefully there’s no third offenses, but you’ll come down to [the APs] and your parent will have to come pick it up and your parent will have to pay a fee to pick it up. Subsequent offenses, we will figure it out. We will work with your parent/guardian to discuss the next steps.”
However, some students are having a hard time adjusting to the new mandatory cell phone use policy.
“I don’t like it, but I think it’s going to help kids focus better in the classroom because there’s no distractions,” sophomore Mari Vanacour said. “I think it will help lower cheating because especially if you have a Chromebook, you can’t Google things, and some kids would just Google the answers on their phone.”
The APs hope that students will realize that the new policy is not a punishment, but rather an effort to help them focus in class and engage with each other.
“The reason behind that is not for us to be a jerk, but because that way you guys are engaging with the really great things your teacher has prepared for you, you engaging with each other and just kinda practicing those skills,” Sabatier said. “It’s important that we’re engaging with each other and not just scrolling all day.”
