Aubrey Gehman

DIsconnecting…Putting her device in a phone pocket, sophomore Navya Vysyaraju follows the new phone policy. The policy was put in place this school year.

A new phone policy at the high school stresses the importance of learning and concentration during class, without the need for cell phones and earbuds.
With phones and other types of technology being a part of many people’s everyday lives, sometimes distractions can follow.
According to Principal Sam Varano, in the school environment, where learning is prioritized, having a loss of concentration due to phones can become problematic.
“It’s just the emphasis of our school that students can not have their phones out or be using them during class, have earbuds in their ears and certainly can not be taking video,” Varano said.
According to Varano, the guidelines of the phone policy are the same for the whole school, however, each teacher decides how they want to implement it in their classroom.
Sophomore Navya Vysyaraju experiences several different methods of policy adaptations in her classes.
“Some of my teachers have phone pockets, and others just ask us to put our phones away in our bags,” Vysyaraju said.
The policy was explained to students in the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year and.
“There are similar expectations in each class, and there is power to that,” Varano said.
According to Varano, the phone policy came into consideration after observations of a loss of concentration in classes.
“Teachers had become very frustrated over the last couple of years with the amount of phone use in the classroom,” Varano said, “and that it was clearly distracting students from their ability to learn.”
As a result, a school-wide focus was put on the subject. However, many teachers had begun to stress the importance of limiting in-class phone use before the policy was put in place.
Business teacher Maria Halteman had already begun the use of phone pockets in her classroom the previous year.
“I decided to use phone pockets last year because it just got to a point where I felt like students were so attached to their phones that they were just not able to focus in class,” Halteman said.
While Varano and many teachers see the benefit of having the phone policy, there has been a rise in student opinions surrounding the subject.
“Students are forgetting their phones in their classes and it becomes very hectic when they have to rush back and get their phones again,” Vysyaraju said. “ I feel like a phone pocket becomes extra work for a teacher and their students.”
Junior Emma Hunter has similar concerns with the phone policy, as she feels that some aspects are unfair.
“There are not that many students who struggle with it,” Hunter said, “and those who don’t should be able to keep their privileges.”
While both Vysyaraju and Hunter point out some of the negative aspects of the policy, they both understand why it has been implemented.
“I understand the idea behind it. I think that it does help students communicate better, and they’re actually talking to each other, and there is more cooperation,” Vysyaraju said.
The policy has also resulted in more socialization amongst students.
“Teachers are telling me that they see more kids talking to each other rather than just looking and listening to their phones. I didn’t plan for that, but that’s awesome,” Varano said.