New York students just underwent their first week of school with a bell-to-bell cellphone ban aimed at improving learning outcomes and fostering face-to-face social connection.
Parents, students, and staff largely had positive reactions to the new policy in comments to CBS News.
“At first, I was really torn up about it. And then, now, I kind of like, like at lunch, we’ll all talk the whole period,” said Jack Kuenstler, a 12-grader at Walt Whitman High School in South Huntington.
At Walt Whitman High School, officials added a special bell to mark to daily deadline for putting away personal devices. The policy only allows for internal school emails and technology used for lessons, according to the report.
“It’s such a habit that I always had [my cellphone]. That’s why I feel like it’s weird. But I feel like it’s good, though, because I’m more focused in class,” 11th-grader Isabella David said.
The school’s principal John Murphy told the outlet he was “apprehensive” of the ban at first and had favored the school’s former policy of no phones during academic periods. Murphy said he has seen an “uptick in positive energy” already and said he has seen students “really actively engaged.”
Some students have even taken to playing board games in the lunch room, according to the report.
“The kids are actually being kids and interacting with their peers. I think that was what the heart of this initiative was,” Murphy said.
Teacher Kathleen O’Neill told the outlet that “learning suffered” with the intrusion of phones in classrooms over the last few years, calling the tech craze an “epidemic” and explaining that it was difficult to get through lessons without interruptions.
O’Neill said the cellphone ban is enabled a new kind of learning: having students practice their in-person conversation skills, since they are so used to texting.
The school said there were only three smuggling violations during the first week. Per the policy, phones can be confiscated from students, and students who repeatedly buck the rules could face suspension.
The school installed more landlines throughout the building if students need to contact home, and parents can phone or email the school to quickly contact their child, according to the report.
Feedback was more varied in New York City. On Thursday, some students on the Upper West Side told CBS New York they were not pleased with how their phones were stored. However, one mother said her daughter’s phone was still off at pickup, the report continues.
Another student in Queens said she was fearful of not being able to personally reach her parents if an emergency occurred.
One mom told the outlet the ban was helpful when a hazmat situation happened at a school in Westchester County on Thursday.
“I was actually pleased that they didn’t have phones because I think there would have probably been more confusion,” she said. “Getting just one message from the school is probably better than a million different rumors.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
