As many of you are aware, the new phone policy has caused outrage among the students. For clarification, the new phone policy requires phones to be put away in a bag or locker for the school day, with the only exceptions being before the 7:40 a.m. bell, during lunch, the senior lounge, and at the end of the day. When in class, your bag is to be put wherever the teacher wants it, so this can be in the front of the room or the back of the room. The punishments aren’t any better either, as sometimes teachers won’t verbally tell you to put your phone away, so you will immediately be met with the first and second offense punishments.
The Issues
There are many complaints students have about the new policies, and I selected the three I found to be the most common and most important among the complaints.
The Bags and Hallways
The bag placements are one of the big issues, as many believe them to be unnecessary. Most students think the better option is to have the bags be placed beside the desks instead of by the front or the back of the classroom. This way, the bags are more accessible to students, rather than having to walk back and forth between their desk and their bag. This also makes it more convenient than leaving my bag beside my desk. Another popular complaint is that phones are not allowed in the hallways during passing time, and this is a completely unnecessary rule in the phone policy. Back then, it was a lot simpler to just check your phone for your classes instead of carrying a piece of paper around to find them, and that’s how it always was.
The Consequences/Punishments
This one isn’t as significant a complaint as the others, but I thought it was still worth addressing. Me and a few other students have noticed how the punishments for having our phones out are completely blown out of proportion compared to the offense, I think the subsequent offense punishments are fine, it’s just the first and second ones are the problem, because what do you mean that if I just quickly check my phone for a minute, I get a three-hour detention AND a week’s loss of phone privileges? Personally, the phone privilege rule is for our parents to decide, not the school.
What do the Students think?
Students so far feel strongly about the new policy, particularly in relation to the strictness and safety issues.
“It isn’t safe,” said Bridget Sharp, junior. “ If we have a lockdown, how are we supposed to contact our parents if our bags are on the other side of the room? We should be allowed to use it in the hallways for checking schedules, especially when we change or pull out of classes.”
Others feel the district’s focus on phones is misguided.
“Phones shouldn’t be banned,” said Dayana Travers, senior. “The school is more concerned with them than with other problems like drug usage.”
While others just care about the times we can and can’t have our phones.
“It really sucks,” said Reinie Griffin, junior. “Let us have it during passing time and CTL.”
Why Phones Aren’t the Problems
Phones were never really the problem at all at Fitch; most conflicts and issues I’ve seen here relate to other problems like fights, drugs, mental health, and bullying. Drugs are still an issue currently, as one of my friends mentioned to me that the bathroom by the cafeteria still smells like marijuana, but the school wants to focus on phones and personal devices instead of that. I understand that fights can be spread through phones via texting, but that doesn’t inherently mean they are the cause of them, as fights can also occur in face-to-face interactions. I’ve had experience with minor harassment here at Fitch and GMS (Groton Middle School), and they weren’t from phones either. And what’s odd to me is how “Anonymous Report” is promoted a lot by staff, but how can we make the report if we can’t have our phones? Nobody’s going to pull out an entire Chromebook to report someone. However, enough about that; here are some more important reasons to adjust the phone policy.
Connection
Connection is obviously a big thing when it comes to phones and other devices. Many kids have family issues that happened, and sometimes these kids might get constant messages and updates from family that are very important. But how can someone answer the messages if their bag is on the other side of the room? I don’t think the BOE (Board of Education) took any of that into consideration when making this policy.
Emergencies
This is another significant issue, and it somewhat ties into family situations, as emergencies are also a major concern when you don’t have a phone on you. School shootings, fires, bomb threats, and many others are all things that can happen where you NEED to have contact with the outside world because what if I want to inform my parents of a potential shooter being inside the building, or if there’s a fire that started. I need to inform my parents about it, or the possibility that I’m trapped in the building with the fire? I have been aware of teachers having “exceptions” to things like the family situations, but that still isn’t the better option compared to being able to freely check my device.
How Can it Improve?
After reviewing the interviews I conducted with some students, I have identified several ways to improve this policy, making it more fair and beneficial for the students, rather than being unfair to them and beneficial to the school. Some of these improvements address previous issues that were commonly encountered among students; here are ways we can resolve these issues.
Fixing the Bags and Hallways
One change would be to allow students to keep their bags beside them and their desk, and this doesn’t mean “put your bags under your desks,” because that’s not exactly what I mean by it. Just allowing students to keep their bags beside them instead of the other side of the room can be very beneficial and help with the problem of needing to get up and walk over to their bag constantly. The obvious improvement for the hallways is to just allow students to use them in the hallways. I don’t think I need to expand on it because it’s that simple an improvement to the hallway policy.
Lightening the Consequences
The big improvements I think should be made to the punishments for breaking this policy. Since you know the punishments for the first and second offenses are the problems due to them being very strict compared to the offense (being on your phone). I think we can separate the first and second offenses, making them separate punishments and having them each have their own punishments. For the first offense, I think it would be best to just have the office or security hold onto it for the rest of the school day, OR have your parents come and take it back home. As this is a first offense, it should be a more lighthearted punishment. Now, for the second offense, I think the three-hour detention should be moved to a second offense punishment, plus being held by the office or security. Then the subsequent offenses can remain the same.
Final Thoughts
I personally don’t think the policy should be removed entirely. I’m fine without being on my phone during class, but there are just some
things that need to be addressed and changed. I hope this view on the policy being addressed can hopefully get it changed to be more lighthearted for the students, instead of how strict and intense it is right now.
