In the past, the majority of teachers here on campus were very lenient about students using their phones in the classroom. After a letter from Governor Gavin Newsom, schools are being much stricter about cell phone usage at school. Governor Newsom states in this letter that he wants this policy to be enforced because students should be free of distraction while in the classroom. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 72% of high school teachers reported that students being distracted by their cell phones is a major issue.

With Gary Henderson being the principal of our school, I wanted to see what he had to say about this letter. I started by asking him if he agrees with this policy and why this policy is being more strictly enforced this year. He said that it is being more strictly enforced because there are studies showing that being on your phone often is doing damage to students. Henderson said that the bigger part of it is the mental health aspect. According to him, this policy will be “protecting them from their own behaviors.” This is referring to the possible cyber bullying the student could be receiving or putting online. He added that he understands this policy may be hard for some students, but in the end, it would be better for all of us, both mentally and educationally.

Now hearing from the students here at West. I first spoke to junior Keira Hathorn. I started by asking for her general opinion on the cell phone policy. Hathorn said that she was okay with the policy since it does not affect her too badly. I then asked her how she thinks this policy would affect the students that only use their phones to communicate with their parents. Hathorn said that this policy would somewhat limit that although there is a class wall phone they could use. She then said, “But sometimes there are personal and private matters that you might not want your teacher to know.” She ended by saying that she believes that the school is hoping to get more student focus and engagement during class with the strict enforcement of this policy.

This phone issue does not only affect the students though, but parents also had something to say about the phone policy. Renae Miller started by saying that she is not at all against this policy because she sees that phones have become a big distraction to people. I asked Miller about how she felt about not having immediate access of communication with her student. She said that she does not like this idea since she believes that there may be times that parents will need to directly access their student as soon as they can. Miller also said, “…there needs to be appropriate times that are set for a student where they shouldn’t be restricted to contacting their parent.”