Thoughts shared on new phone policy

By Chiupong Huang ‘23

With the start of the 2022-2023 school year in the fall, a new set of rules regarding student cell phone use was announced: students are not allowed to use their cell phones or have them out from the start of the school day to the end at 3:15 p.m., regardless of whether or not they are in a class. Further, students are no longer allowed to keep their cell phones in their pockets, and have to store them either in their backpacks or lockers. Those found violating the policy will have their phones confiscated. While the new set of rules was initially met with open cries of protest from students when it was first announced in the Berry Performing Arts Center, a little over a trimester has passed, and I spoke to several faculty members and students to learn more about their experiences with the new policy.

Luke Tan ‘24 expressed a sense of general satisfaction, believing that the rules have overall benefitted the Upper School: “I feel it has been mildly successful in causing a general shift away from phone dependency. Overall, I see less people using phones during class. Generally, I see less students distancing themselves from class by using their phones.” However, Tan also noted that the policy did not improve his personal experience in class as cell phone use was already forbidden within the classroom, and on phone use outside the classroom, he remarked: “it is mildly annoying when I need to check my schedule in the hallway and have to take my entire computer out instead of pulling out my phone for a few seconds.”

Mr. Jason Murphy, Freshman Class Dean and Upper School history teacher, expressed satisfaction with how the policy affected students both in and outside of his classroom. Mr. Murphy observed: “it’s a great change to see students talking with one another in-between classes and during lunches — far more than I recall in prior years. And time speaking with your schoolmates is time spent building a sense of “us” with those schoolmates.” On how the policy impacted his 9th grade Global Humanities classroom, while cautioning that his observations were anecdotal, he remarked: “My classes, as you know, can be raucous and loud. We have a lot of deep conversations — often about complex ideas. I’ve observed that my students focus more quickly and for longer durations before getting distracted since our newest phone policy began.”

Dr. Raechel Lutz, Upper School history teacher, similarly cited the benefits of limiting cell phone use on classroom focus: “From a teacher’s perspective, I don’t want to have to enforce the rule, but I think it also has created a better classroom environment.” On the rule’s impact outside the classroom, she noted that while she understood students’ dissatisfaction for having their phones confiscated for brief usage during non-instructional time, “longer breaks in between checking your phone… and getting that dopamine feedback from checking your email or checking Instagram, makes your brain a little less reliant.”

While acknowledging the positive impact the policy had on the classroom, David Ezra Flatau-Jones ‘23 stated that he did not feel the policy created a greater sense of community or socialization among students. They observed, “Our community is present together whether we are on our cell phones or not, because for the most part, we enjoy each other’s company – that’s what friends are.”

From what I gathered speaking with students and faculty as well as what I have observed as a student who attends W+H daily, students and teachers generally agree on the benefits of not using the phone in the classroom, however, outside of it, many students are strongly opposed to having their phones confiscated during what they consider to be outside-of-class downtime.