Local schools are hanging up on cell phone usage

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (August 19, 2024) — Samantha Campbell, a junior at Clayton Valley Charter High School, like most high school kids, packs up the usual things each morning: notebooks, textbooks, a water bottle and of course her cell phone. That last item, though, may end up kicked out of the clique if Mt. Diablo Unified School District follows Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plans to build on an Assembly bill that restricts cell phone use by students during the school day.

As school bells ring throughout local schools this fall, the chirps, pops and Taylor Swift lyrics that indicate an all-important text may not, at least in many Diablo Valley middle and high schools.

Already, most schools in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, as well as De La Salle and Carondelet private high schools, limit the use of phones in the classrooms. “I feel like we’re ahead of the curve,” says Alison Sparks, director of operations for the Ugly Eagles.

At CVCHS and many others, upon entering classrooms, students are required to put their phones in a large, pocketed hanger on the wall, to keep them off their desks.

“We don’t like cell phones in students’ hands,” Spark says. “If there is an emergency and a parent is trying to reach their child, they can call the office.”

Students are able to retrieve their phones after class for use during passing times, brunch, and lunch.

Cell phone-free campus

Some local schools are taking it even further, however. Both Ygnacio Valley High School and Mt. Diablo High School in Concord are limiting all cell phones on campus. So is St. Agnes Middle School.

According to MDHS Vice-principal Liz Mangelsdorf, the school will be a cell phone-free campus, meaning students are not allowed to use cell phones during the school day. They are using what’s called the Yondr program. Upon entering the campus, students must place their phones in the pouch provided by the school and place the pouch in a backpack. These phone pouches will be locked upon arrival and unlocked at the end of the school day.

This is in response to Newsom’s plan to limit cell phones in schools. He had approved legislation in 2019 authorizing school districts to limit or prohibit students’ use of cellphones at school. Recently, he said he plans to build on that law — Assembly Bill 272 — to further restrict students’ cellphone use at school but did not offer specific plans.

“I look forward to working with the legislature to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day,” Newsom said in a statement. “When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies — not their screens.”

Most teachers obviously agree with that, says Northgate Principal Kelly Cooper. Two years ago, Cooper charged two teachers to use the “pocket” system in their classrooms. It was such a success at keeping students focused on the class studies that she implemented classroom wide.

“It helps the kids be less distracted. They can’t communicate with their friends during class, and our teachers have said they’ve seen less issues like cheating, issues between students, and fights on campus.

“It also eliminates anxiety for some students who are already online so much.”

Parents

But does it eliminate anxiety for parents, some with children with medical conditions? Like other administrators, Cooper says her students still have access to phones during open times like lunch, brunch, and passing periods, or a parent can use the office.

“My kids know how to get ahold of me,” she says.

She also is adamant that she would support an all-school daily ban on cell phones, like YVHS and MDHS.
“I’d go for a mandate,” she says.

Cell phone mandates are common in many private schools, like St. Agnes and Walnut Creek’s Seven Hills School.

“It makes a big difference, both in the classroom and out of it,” says Seven Hills Middle School Spanish teacher Amy Casey. However, some the students she tutors on off hours object whole-heartedly.

“They don’t want to lose that privilege,” she says. “But I’m 100 percent in favor. But that applies to all devices in the room, like computers and iPads. I don’t want to see them using GoogleChat or other ways to communicate and not pay attention to the lesson.”

Opposition

Unlike Casey and Northgate’s Cooper, there are many parents who oppose an outright ban on cell phones during classroom time.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think there should be a ban,” says CVCHS Parent-Faculty Club President Beth Campbell, Samantha’s mom. “I think there should be guidance and direction for all students and teachers.

On one hand, Campbell wants Samantha to be able to reach her in a threatening situation, such as an intruder on campus or a fight that breaks out in the classroom. On the other hand, she doesn’t want to see other students filming a fight or an embarrassing encounter that will end up on Tik-Tok.

“For the safety of my student, I want them in the classroom,” she says. Still, she recognizes that it is hard for students to rat out their peers when they are misbehaving. That’s why she supports the “pocket protocol” many schools use.

She has also heard of other dissuasions used in other districts, such as a “three-strikes rule.” If a student is caught misusing a cell phone in the classroom more than twice, they will surrender their phone to the principal, and have to pay a significant fine to get it back.

Newsom’s announcement came after the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms to advise that social media use can harm teenagers’ mental health.
Samantha is more laid back than her mom about a total ban. “If it happens, it happens. I’ll just read a book or something.”