This school district is seeing major benefits to going phone-free

A recent Common Sense Media survey of kids ages 11 to 17 found some stunning statistics: Half of the students surveyed receive 237 or more notifications on their phone each day. And the median amount of time they spent on their phones at school each day is 43 minutes.

That’s one reason more teachers and child experts are pushing for school districts to develop phone-free school policies. Last week, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association just came out endorsing bell-to-bell phone free policies in schools (details here).

That policy of going phone free bell-to-bell, meaning no phones from the first bell to the last bell of the day, was adopted by administrators at Sto-Rox Jr./Sr. High School several years ago. They started collecting the phones and putting them in envelopes and bins when students enter the building. Then, they return them at the end of the school day.

It’s had a powerful impact.

“Teachers are no longer having to ask students to put cell phones away,” says Mike Duca, Sto-Rox Jr./Sr. High School’s dean of students. “They’re able to actually teach directly and not have to worry about them being distracted during class.”

Teacher Shayanne Rippole loves the phone-free policy and says without it, the phones were distracting.

Back when students had their phones in class, Rippole says, “they would just kind of look through you. And then they’re looking down at their phones, and they think they’re inconspicuous, and they’re not. They’re definitely less focused and less engaged, and I don’t think they’re retaining the information as much.”

Now, Rippole says, with the new policy she’s no longer policing kids on their phones.

“Not having (phones) in the classroom allows for them to deeply connect with each other, with me as their teacher,” she says. The students can “try to build bonds and also be able to focus on the work.”

Sto-Rox Senior High School junior Iyana Lewis says she noticed a difference between when she could have the phone in ninth grade to now. “Yes,” Lewis says, “my grades weren’t that well in ninth grade, but they started improving (in) 10th grade and towards 11th.”

When asked why she thinks her grades changed, Lewis was clear: “Because I didn’t have my phone and I wasn’t, like, always, like on it.”

Schools are going phone-free for more than just academic reasons. They also know that kids need to learn to communicate in person without the phones. Before Sto-Rox Jr./Sr. High School banned phones, teachers say students would be on phones at lunch, but now they’re talking with each other.

“When cell phones were allowed,” Duca says, “everyone would be on their cell phones, listening to music, not really interacting. The lunch room was extremely quiet at that point.”

Now, he says, students are having conversations and really communicating with each other.

The students and administrators say the phone-free policy has also helped cut down on fights at school.

Everyone doesn’t love it: Some students don’t like the policy and feel the phones would help them communicate with coaches and concentrate better by listening to music. They say without phones, there are just different distractions.

“Instead of me listening to music and doing my work, I’m talking to my friends because it’s like I’m getting distracted,” says Junior Nynal Griffin.

Freshman Asya’nae White suggests a compromise: “I think we should be on the phone sometimes. Give us an award because when we finish our work, we are just sitting there with nothing to do for 20 minutes.”

But at Sto-Rox and other schools that have adopted phone-free policies, students, parents, teachers and administrators have been adapting to the change. And many schools are considering going phone-free.

Mileva Repasky, co-founder of Phone-Free Schools Movement, says there’s momentum as more school districts, states and even countries are banning phones in schools.

“We’re not advocating that they never pick up a phone again,” says Repasky, who is originally from Western Pennsylvania. The goal, she says, is to “give them back the eight hours of school time that they should be focused on learning and engaging.”

Repasky’s organization has toolkits for administrators and others who want to know more about creating and implementing a bell-to-bell phone-free school policy on their website, Phone-Free Schools Movement.