By Daniel Gao and Michael Lin, Staff Writers
The push for implementing a stricter phone policy at Mills High School has sparked heated debates among students, teachers, and administrators. San Mateo High School has already pioneered its cell phone-free environment policy, where students place their phones in Yondr pouches, pressuring other schools in the district to do the same.
In order to reduce the ever-increasing rate of students being distracted by their phones, high schools such as San Mateo High School established a phone pocket policy. According to the Mills High School Students and Parent/Guardian Handbook, “Students will not use iPods, or portable electronic listening devices in class unless permission by the teacher is given for educational purposes only. Cell phones for personal use may only be used before school, brunch, lunch, or after school.” As reasonable as it sounds, phone usage for educational purposes is rather subjective, what a student may interpret as useful academic sources, or references may be seen as a distraction by a teacher, and since different teachers have different sets of moods and tolerance, said distraction may invite trouble such as confiscation. According to the San Mateo High School Cell Phone Free Environment contract page 1, they believe that phones should be kept in confiscation and only returned to students after school. “Should an emergency occur on campus, our staff will notify all parents/guardians in a timely fashion. ” As stated by the “San Mateo High School Cell Phone Free Environment” waiver to prevent students from taking advantage of emergency usage of phones, administrations would step in and help students in need. A question still stands, what is considered an emergency? Different teachers have different perspectives towards that term, and given that some students would cry wolf to tamper with their phones, it would therefore make staff members more skeptical. Besides an inconvenient and preventable waste of time to the office, said emergencies are also victimized to being questioned of their urgency.
However, Mills students such as me are not very ecstatic about the rumors of a new phone policy. The implementation of a new stricter phone policy like the one executed at San Mateo High School will largely make the student body unhappy. Design Tech High School in Redwood City faced a huge backlash and protest from students when they tried to use the Yondr pouch. Students claimed that Yondr pouches took away their freedom. Some working students are worried that they would not be able to respond to their employers as some contact them during school hours. Other students who usually carpool after school stress that the implementation of phone locks would jeopardize how they can get home as they need to arrange a ride ahead of time. Mills High School must not implement this ruinous policy that will uproot the students’ routines and turn their lives into upheaval.
As strict as the policy may be, it’s not entirely unreasonable. Since the COVID-19 pandemic scourged upon our social constructs, we as a school district became reliant upon technology to conduct our daily tasks, and slowly seeds of attraction and dependency have been planted in our psyches. Regardless of such tragedies, the ubiquitous distraction by devices does not outweigh the needs of students who require their phones to contact parents or even bosses at work. “I have a part-time job after school, and my manager contacts me via text during school hours.”- Dtech Dragon. Especially for us seniors, phones are a crucial means to contact work. For certain students who require jobs for economic reasons, it is vital for them to keep their jobs and, in this case, be made aware of their workplace changes. Many seniors currently have jobs in order to save up money for gas or college. In conclusion, having a phone is a necessary part of our economic survival.
