Daniella Del Angel
In school there are two types of people: there are people who engage in learning, and people who are on their phones. Schools decided to take leadership in this and banned phones. Not surprisingly, students aren’t thrilled about this. Most people blame the schools, but it’s not totally their fault. Part of the reason for the change is Ohio law.
Why did this law change? Well, researchers say that while phones were in schools, the rate of depression, anxiety, bullying, and sleep deprivation all rapidly increased. So they put a law in place banning cell phone usage during school hours. At first, most schools thought it was a good idea to have this rule in place even if it wasn’t a law in the state, then more states became on board with this and decided to make it law. Now 31 states in the U.S. have and enforce this law. This rule includes calling, texting guardians, or making any contact with anyone from their phone. If students want to do that, they have to go to an office or a teacher.
Some people think this law goes too far, in part because school shootings have been
happening more frequently as time goes on. If students can’t contact parents or loved ones, they wouldn’t be able to share their last words with the people they love most.
Now, if we’re talking more likely to happen, let’s say you forget your project that you’ve been working on for weeks and its due today so you need to see if your mom can drop it off so you need to text her to bring it to you but the “no phone policy” causes you to get a 0% or points taken off for it being late.
There’s ups and downs to the law, so to find out more, we sent out a poll to some Harrison High Schools students to see what they thought. We asked “Students at Harrison High School aren’t allowed to access their cell phones from 7:45-2:45. How do you feel about this?” 60% of students said they hate it and think it’s stupid. We also asked “Do you think students not having access to social media during the school day will cut down on bullying?” and 50% said “not at all” while 40% said “sort of”.
Many students (specifically at Harrison High School) are unhappy with the ban along with some teachers saying things such as “school leaders should outline in their building policies that cellphone-ban enforcement should not rely on teachers.” because the administrators are making it the teachers’ responsibility to make sure the adolescents stay off the phone. Teachers are expected to confiscate phones if the students are on them after a warning. We all know how stubborn students get when people take their stuff especially with teachers. Kids have no conscience when it comes to being rude to faculty, and the staff doesn’t get paid enough to parent us. So staff should quit attempting to parent and oversee the adolescents of the school and treat them like the young adults they are maturing to be, along with helping them learn more so they can bear the struggles of their future everyday lives at the same time.
On the bullying part, the MHAE (Mental
Health Awareness Education) says it’s valid that phones shouldn’t be in school, and they advocate for phone-free schools saying things like “it’s clear that schools should be smartphone-free during the school day if we want our kids to learn.” and “Cell phones interrupt instruction as students receive notifications, texts, and calls during lessons.”
The official Ohio law says phones can be used under certain circumstances; They say children with disabilities, Students with a 504, or an active treat or emergency to student learning based on the Ohio law.”
So basically, students dislike the ban while teachers and staff seem are divided on it. Click here to fill out a poll we made to get more opinions and you can see what other people think too!