Phone Rules?

      Have you ever had a super strict teacher, especially about phones? Well, guess what, that might turn into every teacher by this fall. This is already taking action in Oregon, where they signed an executive order to ban cellphones in classrooms. The order mandates districts to adopt policies prohibiting student cell phone use by Oct. 31, 2025, with full implementation required by Jan. 1, 2026. The question is, when will this take place for Washington school districts? 

     I interviewed five students here at Eisenhower, and this is what they had to say. When I asked if Eisenhower was strict on phone usage. All of them replied along the lines of “Eisenhower is not as strict but it depends on the teachers”, and when I asked If we should be more strict a student said “ No, because most teachers remind us when to put devices away when their speaking and to not use our phones so we stay on task and we just do it.” and “Kids are kids, they’re going to retaliate if they get their phones taken. If students don’t want to learn, then that’s their choice.”

     To students here at Eisenhower, the phone ban is perfect the way it is with discipline, but don’t believe having our phones locked up all day is necessary. In some states, each classroom has a shelf or “filing caddy” near the door where students place their devices before class instruction begins. The overall objective of this initiative is to reduce the number of students using their cellphones, but at what point does it become excessive?

     In many people’s opinion, taking or locking up our devices will cause nothing but a rebellion and resentment towards our staff. When asked how some of our students feel about other states phone ban, this is what they had to say “I feel like in a way it’s understandable to have a limit of our phone usage, but that’s still our property and we use them as a tool and it crosses the line of our boundaries to take our devices” and “I feel like it’s absurd because in some states there’s a high chance of a school shooting and people have medical issues that need devices to communicate to their parents”  with this in mind, it doesn’t make sense to take away a device that is useful and in some cases a tool in our classrooms. These students believe it makes sense to have a policy against phones, but they think it oversteps when we take them from everyone.