Stricter policy enforcement seeks to cut cord of student phone addiction

School’s out…and then comes right back in. Every year seems like a repeat of the next as students pick up right where they left off with homework, extracurriculars, and all other mundane facts of school. This year is no different as an old policy has gotten a new coat of attention. Cell phones, and their incessant distractions and abuse, have come under the microscope once again.  

While the school’s policy about in-class phone use is the same this year as it has been in the past, tighter and more uniform enforcement of rules regarding cell phone use is now being implemented. The strategy can be considered a zero-tolerance approach to phone use during class time, with a first-time infraction being punishable by teacher confiscation of the device for the hour and consequences quickly escalating for repeated offenses. Also beginning this year, shifts of teachers are monitoring hallways to ensure students do not use their devices when they leave the classroom. 

These measures come as school districts nationwide struggle to control students’ phone usage over concern about academic success and adolescent mental health. Principal Rebecca Montour, a pivotal player in the adjustments to the school’s personal device policy this year, believes stricter enforcement is necessary to ensure student engagement in the classroom.

“It’s really important knowing how much social interaction kids get on their phones, how many notifications they get, to have them out of sight, out of mind so they can focus on what they’re doing in class,” she said.

Montour also believes that the unified enforcement strategy will reduce stress on students by creating consistent expectations across the school and reducing social pressure to be connected to online devices.

“It’s important for me just to ask the adults to be consistent in it so it’s just equitable practices and consistent expectations for kids,” she explained. “If I’m in English class, I know my friend who’s in math class can't be messaging me either, so it takes a little bit of that pressure off because everybody’s in the same boat.”

Spanish teacher Alyssa Gauthier has not always taken a very strict stance on phone policy enforcement, addressing in-class phone use with verbal reminders.

“But as the weeks would go by, students would get more bold and I’d see their phones sitting on the table,” she said. “Any time it goes off they’re distracted and their brain is taken away from whatever they’re trying to do.”

Gauthier saw the new phone policy enforcement as an opportunity to change the way she approached personal device restrictions in her classes. At the beginning of the hour, students in her class place their phones in a pouch hung at the back of the room to minimize distraction. Having phones out of students’ reach has reduced the amount of stress that Gauthier experiences when teaching, allowing her to be better focused on her students.

“The phone pouch eliminated a behavioral problem I didn’t even know was there,” she said. “It just completely took any possibility of a behavioral issue with phones off my plate, which has been so nice.”

Gauthier has seen more student engagement during class time since the new enforcement strategy went into place. This effect is especially evident with her freshmen students, who she believes are adapting to the policy more easily than older cohorts of students who experienced more teacher leniency around phone use in past years. 

“I don’t think phone use completely disrupted my teaching, but I definitely think students were more distracted before,” she said. 

Although teachers and administrators feel that the new approach to the phone policy is essential to learning and engagement, students are more dubious of its benefits. Senior Gray Zahner believes that most students’ phone use during class time in past years was minimal and created few distractions.

“I don’t think something recreational like checking a message in the middle of class is a bad thing,” they said. 

Having access to their devices during class also helped some students receive updates about their schedules for after school. Sophomore Kally Pietz feels checking messages during class helped her get this sort of important information before the end of the day.

“If I was in history class and I got a message like, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to find your own way home,’ I would have to make sure I catch the city bus because it’s all the way on the other side of the school,” she explained.

Students who are not guilty of extensive phone usage believe that teachers’ increased emphasis on concealing devices this year is a new source of anxiety for them, which may take away from in-class content.

“I don’t want to get in trouble if a teacher sees my phone out,” Pietz said. “And then I feel a lot more worried of like, can I see it? Do I have it on the table? I check my surroundings a lot more.”

Students also observe that the tighter enforcement of West’s phone policy doesn’t address the broader issue of over-use of phones and addiction to technology. Zahner thinks that the solution to in-class phone use and more general disengagement from school lies not in school policy, but in addressing core issues that may stretch to the home environment or mental health challenges.

“People that are using phones chronically in class, what’s going to help them or stop them is not having phones taken away because there are deeper reasons why they’re dependent on it,” they suggested. “It’s a form of escapism.”

Montour acknowledges that West’s phone policy will likely not change student habits outside of the classroom, although she expresses hope that the district can take steps that might promote more moderate phone use at home. 

“I don’t see it leading into home, although one of my goals would be to educate parents more on the effects of phone use,” she says. “And truly, if you dig into the data and the research, it’s really more about educating parents of students in upper elementary and middle school because those ages are super vulnerable to becoming addicted to those things.”

by Aria Boehler 

Published October 7 2024

Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue I