The blue “calculator” holders are seen all over the school this year as schools are enforcing that the use of cell phones during the school day be greatly reduced.
Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed a bill that requires schools to adopt a policy around personal devices in school. The law would require schools to limit the phone usage that students are allowed to have during their classes. Personal devices have always been a struggle between students and their teachers; this policy enforces the plan onto all teachers and classes rather than having certain teachers allow the devices in their classes and others not.
An amendment was added earlier this year to the pre-existing bill, House Bill 250, of which DeWine called onto the Ohio General Assembly to help him with his goal of getting phones out of the classroom setting. Others agree and believe that cell phones lead to missed information in the classroom, harassment, cyberbullying and distractions.
Hudson High School has left it up to teachers to handle the recurring phone struggle based on their class and how much they want to enforce it. In recent years, the majority of the teachers allowed students to keep their phones with them as long as they were in their backpacks and not directly on top of their desks. The law is very flexible, leaving it up to the school district in how they want to deal with the new change and in what ways they will enforce it. This year, every class has the blue calculator holder with numbered pockets that belong to each student, where they will keep their phone in. Almost every teacher enforces the policy of not allowing students to keep their phones during class with the exception of a few due to how personal devices directly relate to the class’s subject.
Many teachers claim that by having students put their phones in the holders they stop yearning for kids’ attention. Instead of telling one student five times to put their phone away, they are able to eliminate the problem altogether without the fighting aspect.
The ugly truth is that students are addicted to their phones. A few HHS students commented on how they “feel like a part of them is missing” or how they “don’t know what to do with themselves” without their phones close to them. Many do not realize how much of an impact they make on our day to day lives. For a lot of students, this is the first time where they don’t have their phones in direct reach. This change is even affecting students who felt as though they weren’t addicted to their phones during classes in previous years.
A worrying topic for parents and students is how phones greatly impact students’ lives at school. Some rely heavily on their phones to check life saving information such as blood sugar level or heart rate that could determine the fate of their lives. The process of completely eliminating phones out of schools would need to be heavily thought out as schools would need to put into consideration who is allowed their phones and who isn’t.
Schools going phone free have erupted all over the United States and neighboring countries. Schools and teachers are tired of trying to find ways to do this in the least invasive way possible. The pros from going phone free are extremely attractive to many. Many schools have adopted multiple kinds of policies and tactics on how to tackle the problem to the best of their ability.
Students don’t know what the future holds as far as if the school is going to enforce more harsh policies, but for right now students should get used to putting their phones away in the all too familiar numbered pockets.
