Here at CCAHS, there has been a change in regards to students’ cell phones. This “policy” is not actually a new school rule per-say, but more a new set of restrictions that teachers are allowed to officially implement in their classrooms if they wish to do so.

Students may now be required to leave their phones in the classroom if they wish to use the restroom during class time; teachers can also ask that phones not be on a student’s desk during class time or require that it be inside their backpack.

Because this policy isn’t necessarily changing the rules, more or less outlining possible methods of stopping cell phone use in class for teachers who previously didn’t have these guidelines, students haven’t noticed much difference in means of actually having their phones out during class. Most of them said that they haven’t noticed anything different and those who answered otherwise said they didn’t really have much of an opinion of the changes they did notice.

 One student interviewed said that “I sometimes get anxious when I feel my phone buzz and I can’t check it but I honestly haven’t noticed much of a difference.”

So because the cell phone policy has been implemented by most teachers but students hardly notice much of a difference, could this be considered a victory in terms of limiting distractions in the classroom? Has cellphone use in classrooms decreased? 

A teacher interviewed noted that “Students who want to be on their phones most are still going to do it, but it seems to have cut down a lot and encouraged more people to be participating in general,” the teacher also said that since implementing the rule that students have to leave their phones in the classroom bathroom breaks have been considerably shorter. So since this policy has in a teacher’s eyes been effective with little protest from the students, this policy could be considered a definite success in limiting student cell phone use.