Camas High School (CHS) starts the 2024 school year off with new restrictions related to phone usage in class as widespread data has shown that students spend an unhealthy amount of time on their phones in class.
“There’s been a widespread push to tighten the reins and to get more structure on phones and responsible use,” CHS Associate Principal Owen Sanford said. “Some staff have wanted to do an all-out ban, but we haven’t done that. We’re really trying to keep it in teacher-control mode.”
According to the school board, there have been widespread trends of schools banning phones completely or having stricter phone restrictions with data to support that it is benefiting students to keep phones out of class time. Battle Ground High School (BGHS) has decided to ban phones altogether.
“The research of getting students back in the building [after the COVID-19 pandemic] and seeing how having that constant access to social media and touching base with friends is intervening with learning,” CHS Dean of Students Darci Jones said. “It’s a distraction, and just in some ways we are seeing the increase in student anxiety related to access to phones.”
The school board seems to agree that phones need to have restrictions in class to provide a social media-free zone where students can do their work without digital distractions. Chromebooks are usually not a distraction due to the program GoGuardian which blocks non-education sites, however, phones cannot be controlled by a third-party program. The best solution is to keep phones in a teacher-controlled environment such as phone pockets that are kept in classrooms.
“I understand that they’re trying to do with the phone bans but that’s not the main reason why students are failing classes,” CHS senior Angel Troung said.
Troung thinks that what they are doing now is working so far and complete bans are not necessary until phones really become out of hand.
BGHS junior, Madi Walker said that BGHS saw other schools being successful with the phone ban and decided they wanted to [implement phone bans] too.”
BGHS decided to take the path of banning phone usage at school altogether by locking up students’ phones for the school day and giving them back at the end of the day.
“They give out referrals and will take phones away. They will also call their parents and the parents will have to come pick the phone up,” Walker said. “I understand why they banned phones, but it is just a little too much. Yes, it helps people focus more but, I also used my phone last year to help me with a lot of things like taking pictures of notes or writing reminders.”
“I think they are beneficial because high schoolers do use their phones a lot and it’s better that they are enforcing stricter rules so kids can do their work in class,” CHS sophomore Elliot Jones said. “I don’t necessarily think they (phone rules) are different for me because I already didn’t use my phone in class but it’s a good reminder for other people.”
“I don’t think phones should be completely banned in case of emergencies and medical issues but I do think that so far the attention span in class has already changed a lot since last school year,” Jones added.
For now, CHS will not ban phones like BGHS has decided to but will further look into the choices of restricting phone use in class.
