At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, the SCH administration enforced a new cell phone policy that restricts students’ phones from being used during class.
Senior Abdoul Diallo had an opinion that questioned the policy. He said, “. . . the reason you’re supposed to have a phone is for safety. What if something happens to my family? And they’re trying to reach me? And I can’t talk to them because my phone is in a bin?” Abdoul felt like he was being stripped of his lifeline to his family back home. He isn’t the only person to feel this way.
When asked how other students may have felt about the policy, he stated, “a lot of people are annoyed with the cell phone policy, especially if you’re a junior or senior because you just feel like a little kid having to turn your phone in and I feel like we should just get a little bit more respect.” Like his peers, Abdoul believes that being an upperclassman in the upper school should give him the freedom to have his phone on him during class even though he wouldn’t be using it.
However, SCH Math Teacher Aaron Bergmann has a different perspective. He said, “Last year, we had an uptick of cell phone-related judicial boards and incidents, and it seemed like there was an increasing problem.” A judicial board is a meeting where students and a faculty advisor of the honor council consider the whether or not a student has broken a school rule and whether or not they should receive and a consequence. They also make recommendations on what that consequence should be. Mr. Bergman felt that students should be free of their phones because of the trouble they get themselves in.
“Students weren’t able to make the right choices on their own. That’s when [teachers] stepped in to have a clear message about how and when cell phones should be used,” said Mr. Bergmann.
Before the birth of the cell phone policy, Mr. Bergman would do his part to prevent phone distractions by encouraging students by pretending that he was “throwing his phone out the window,” which was actually his phone case, to display to the students that if he can stow his phone away, they can do the same.
He said, “I would open the window, like throw my phone out the window. . . so people would say ‘Whoa, Mr. Bergmann just threw his phone out the window’ or I would throw it in the trash.”
Mr. Bergman wanted to role model what he would enforce on students about their phones during class time. According to him, it seems that many of the teachers are pleased with how effective the cell phone policy is on students, in their eyes.
“I haven’t heard any negative feedback. So far, I think teachers are pleased with how we were able to come together as a school and determine a policy that was for the benefit of students and their education,” Mr. Bergmann stated.
So, it could be possible that students will get used to this policy and see how effective it is to not have their phones on their persons, but not everything lasts forever.
