Phone bans are happening next school year in Illinois schools to keep students productive and social, but students don’t like it.
Students largely don’t like the ban because it gives them less freedom to do stuff and something to do when they’re bored like playing on their phones or texting other people.
“A lot of people like using their phones in school,” sophomore Genevie Yothers said. “People don’t like them to be taken away.”
One student even said the ban could be dangerous in case of a school shooting or if a student is sick and they need to contact their parents.
However, staff and teachers like the bans because it gives students the chance to be more productive.
“Students are trying to learn how to navigate using them responsibly, but I think some students are highly distracted by them,” art teacher Danelle Setterstrom said. “Our job as teachers is to hopefully teach kids how to use them and be able to put them away and focus, but it’s definitely a challenge.”
By next school year, students will have to have a plan in place for cell phones. Principal Sarah Hasken is going to work with students to develop that plan for next school year, but she said it’s a necessary policy.
“Too many people are addicted to them– students and adults,” Hasken said. “I think they take away from a lot of the student’s brain development. We’re becoming more of a society that likes entertainment in short bits and it’s really hard then to teach persistence when we need students to focus for longer than 5 minutes at a time.”
“Many jobs have you use your phone and different apps, so I think teaching appropriate use of phones is important, but I also understand that the number one distraction from learning in the classroom is phones and devices– whether you’re watching videos, playing games or checking snapchat– they takes you away from the educational process,” Create Academy Dean Nick Namio said.
