In recent years, high schools around the nation have enacted new cell phone policies and practices. This year, LZHS and the middle schools are exercising a new cell phone practice regarding an already existing cell phone policy.
During the 2023-2024 school year, LZHS formed a focus group to examine cell phone use and found that overall, they were distracting to the learning environment and had little positive impact. There was an abundance of research to prove the negative effects of cell phones in class.
“When I came in last year we did a SWOT analysis. The strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, […] one of the big weaknesses that came out when I talked to staff, […] were cell phones, that they are very distracting.” John Walsh, principal, said.
According to a study from University of California Irvine, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on a task after receiving a notification from your phone. Along with this, a study from University of Michigan found that teens receive an average of 240 phone app notifications per day, a quarter arriving during school hours. Along with the research, a survey was sent out to teachers about their perspective of cell phone use while they taught. Walsh found that, “87.5% of teachers favored some sort of practice where we enforce a cell phone [practice].”
After this research and examination on cell phone’s effects on student focus and learning, Walsh decided to put the pre-existing cell phone policy into practice. The practice has students put their phones and AirPods in an assigned caddy for the duration of the class period. The phone caddy is located in the mandated safety corner of the classroom, where students are instructed to go in case of a lockdown, in order to keep the phones away from students during class time while allowing them to access in case of emergency.
“If you have a medical reason, you can have your phone on you during an emergency, [and] you’ll have access to your phone as well. So I think everybody is getting what they need,” Walsh said.
While there is not a statewide ban on cellphones in classrooms in Illinois, multiple other states and cities across the USA are implementing them to help students focus more.
“Florida’s doing a complete ban. There are schools in Pennsylvania that as soon as you walk in the school, you put your phone in a pouch, and you don’t get it until the end of the day. So I will tell you, across the country, we can see that more limitations are putting upon the cell phones and the earbuds,” Walsh said.
The practice is meant to help students focus more in class for a better understanding of the material. With this new practice, Walsh hopes that students’ focus will remain on their studies.
“Instead of being on their phones during class, they’re gonna collaborate with one another and actually have conversations with one another,” Walsh said. “As an offshoot of [students] paying more attention in class, I think grades will go up.”
