**The media below contains the opinion of an individual student and therefore does not represent or speak to the values of Vestavia Hills High School and Vestavia Hills City Schools**
Photo courtesy of Google
This year, our high school has adopted a new cell phone policy that prohibits the use of phones in class. At its initial introduction, it faced serious backlash from the student population and even from a few adults, but how is it faring now?
When interviewed, many students agreed that the cell phone policy has had differing effects based on how the teacher handled the situation. Some teachers have asked the students to try their best to keep their phones away, but others have had a one-strike, no-mistakes attitude. Students agree that lenient teachers have been more effective in keeping the students interested in class because they give students a greater sense of freedom and respect. Many students report that they give the teacher their attention out of respect for how the teacher treats them. Furthermore, this policy has increased the amount of time people spend on their phones in between classes. Beforehand, students would socialize between bells, but they have now grown accustomed to checking their phones at this time.
Students from more lenient schools have expressed shock at this policy, for they believe that it should be up to the teacher to control the class through their earned authority. Students who have already graduated expressed condolences, feeling sorry that the next generations have to deal with even more rules than before. Overall, students everywhere have expressed how they feel more controlled and restricted than before. They feel as if they have no individual power to do anything on their own, and psychologically, they feel as if they are more confined to school as a whole. Students no longer learn and grow on their own, and instead, they let the school force maturity on them through their own authority rather than through the authority of the resource. There is no expectation to learn your own limits because, whether you like it or not, you are forced to do what the school says to do.
However, other students have expressed how they are trying to cut back on their screen time, citing that homework and the rules at school help them to fight their phones. They argue that as displeasurable as it is, the lack of phones induces a more academic environment where students can truly focus on the material in class. Counters to this argument include opinions on how students feel less motivated to pay attention and less able to focus.
The last area of discussion was possible solutions to this issue, and various responses were given. The most common response was to get rid of the no-phone policy, but some others came up with an assortment of creative solutions. One of the main issues with the cell phone policy was the extraction of individual responsibility, and to address this issue, a student proposed that teachers implement reward systems for effort. They proposed that students who pay attention should be rewarded with a day where they may be on their phones as they wish, and this way, they would showcase whether they could handle the responsibility or not. Some students would be on their phones in their downtime during class, and they would maintain their grades as usual. On the other hand, others would waste too much class time and may face either more homework or lower grades, and from this, they would learn to manage their time and to appropriate their attention better. Others have argued for break times throughout class, and some other ideas included similarly themed solutions with break days, break weeks, or any interims where cell phones would be allowed. Overall, students are dissatisfied with the current cell phone policy, and they want change!
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