With the new electronic policy, a lot of controversy has risen regarding its effectiveness. While many students think it benefits their learning, others disagree saying that the policy does the opposite.  In an effort to minimize distractions in the classroom, students can only use electronics during passing periods, lunch, and after school hours.

“I feel the new rule distracts me,” Sophomore Cloey Richard said. “It makes me more anxious not having my device, which leaves me more distracted in class.”

According to the district guidelines, the consequences for violating the policy are as follows, the first offence is a verbal warning by the teacher; the second offense is parent contact, and on the third offense, the phone is turned in to an administrator and may be picked up after school, by the student. Similarly, on the fourth offense, the phone is turned into the administrator for a parent to pick up after school. Finally, on the fifth offense, the phone is turned into an administrator for a parent to pick up, there is a $15 fee charged to Skyward, and the student receives a discipline referral.

“I feel as if the warnings for the phones should reset at the quarter mark and the higher offenses should reset at the semester mark,” Senior Sophia Langlois said. “The district should be more lenient this year, as it’s still new for students and will take time for students to adapt being phone free.”

Prior to this rule, students were allowed to use their phones for projects, after they finished their work, and to contact their family. However, this “free” use was a problem for some teachers, administrators and students. In certain classes phones are needed for academic purposes, for example, signing up with QR codes for class events and projects, emailing information or photos from their phone, and more. “Before the rule in dance we used our phones for assignments.” Sophomore Riley Walters said. “We had an assignment to make a TikTok dance, so we had to use our phones to find audios and inspiration off TikTok.

For most journalism courses, phones are very important, as they are used to keep in touch with editors who are in other class periods, record interviews, as well as taking pictures to record events happening in that moment The new phone policy impedes productivity and opportunities to get the information and photos needed for assignments. This can be stressful not only for the editors and staff, but also for the teacher.

“It limits the ability of quality pictures and interviews which can effects the quality of the yearbook,” Junior Social Media Editor Jay Spencer said. “It’s a struggle because of the miscommunication that can happen one says in an interview without any documentation  that can lead to misinformation in the yearbook because we cant listen back and see if the information is accurate.”

Phones not being allowed even in free time can cause a loss of motivation for the students to finish their work in class. Students with screen addictions are more likely to get distracted while doing homework and makeup work, because they don’t have to check the phone at other times.

“When doing my homework, I feel more distracted,” Sophomore Viviana Schwarz said “because I can’t get on my phone at school, I just get on it at home.”

Additionally Focus, for a lot of students is a problem, so they rely on music to stay on task. With this policy, people aren’t able to use this focusing method because no phones and headphones are allowed during class. This policy also causes a decline in grades for many students, due to the loss of this helpful method of focus.

“I use music in class to focus more on what the teacher is saying and how to apply that to the work I need to do,” Sophomore Michael Ojeda said.

Some staff and students might argue differently, explaining the benefits of this new policy.  According to district guidelines, the purpose of this policy is, “to protect and maximize instruction time while removing distractions to support student success.”  This policy only includes students who are motivated and pay attention. Even with this policy some students that used their phone as an excuse to not work in class will have to find something else to distract themselves.