The passing of House Bill 1481, which prohibits personal communication devices in school, has provided more consistent enforcement of previous policies and created a more focused and social environment for students.
In recent school years, the high school has cycled through multiple phone policies, including the most recent requiring students to place phones in class pouches or containers at the beginning of each period. These policies were effective for the first two weeks of every school year, but enforcement eventually came down to each teacher’s preference. This year, the phone policy has been taken more seriously by teachers and students, increasing simplicity and productivity. Because students do not have to wonder anymore which teachers or classes will allow them to check notifications, they can just shut their phones off and focus on school.
Although classwork would ideally consume the full school day, students have always had some amount of downtime. Now, time that students would previously have spent checking their phones is open for face-to-face conversations and encourages healthier social interactions, which contribute to the personal development of students beyond class work in a way digital communication cannot.
According to the American College of Pediatricians, excessive screen time contributes to “lower academic performance, sleep disturbances, obesity, attention deficit, increased aggression, lower self-esteem, depression and increased rates of high-risk behaviors,” and a report from Common Sense Media found that American teens have an average screen time of almost seven and a half hours a day. Even spending just the hours of the school day without phones and social media can help students with their relationship to technology and force them to pass down time in a more productive way.
Although students and parents argue that the state should not have the right to police students’ personal belongings, this reasoning ignores what would actually contribute to the purpose of a high school education, which should include learning material and completing schoolwork without Snapchat AI.
The new phone law has promoted healthier communication and enabled students to focus solely on their classes during the school day. The fight for students’ “right” to have anything in school that will only harm their health and provide distraction is counterproductive to their well-being and unnecessary when the alternative is just complying with a rule only slightly different from last year’s.
