New Phone Ban Engages Students Despite Challenges

When Stuyvesant students walked into school for the first time in months on September 4, they surrendered their cell phones to velcro-sealed pouches decorated with Stuyvesant’s school crest. The pouches are meant to be stored in students’ bags while in the school building from 8:00 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. Although school rules prohibiting the use of earphones or phone calls in the hallway have been in place for years, excessive phone usage during school has remained a long-term issue. The new bell-to-bell ban on Internet-enabled devices was not a decision made by the Stuyvesant administration but rather by the New York State government, applied to schools across the state. Reactions to attending school under this ban have varied so far, raising questions about how Stuyvesant must now adjust its learning environment.

Before returning to school, there were mixed opinions on the phone ban, although many students recognized the potential benefits of not having access to devices in school. “I think it’s going to be very fruitful, and I think it’s going to be very important for students to learn to socialize without their phones. I think that it’ll get cheating down too. People won’t be able to cheat on their tests with their phones,” junior Millan Bisegna said before the year began. Like many others, however, he acknowledged the challenges of actually enforcing the ban. In response to the suggestion that deans confiscate phones to ensure compliance, he said, “I don’t think that would work, and I also think that would create a hostile environment for the students. It would increase the disparity between the students and the teachers in the school.”

Now that the school year has kicked off, many students believe that the main flaw of the Internet-enabled device ban is difficulty accessing online school work and the increased inconvenience of studying using online resources. “I just wish computers were allowed so I could get more work done without having to go out or to the library,” junior Shayna Wilson said.

While students express mixed reactions, teachers also find themselves having to adjust to the new normal. Many teachers recognize that a major challenge has been the decreased efficiency of doing online work with the device ban. “I know students use their phones and laptops to do work during their free periods. My class requires students to post daily Google Classroom responses, which some of my students used to do immediately after every class. Now they have to wait until they get home, when the ideas may not be as fresh. I’m hoping this will translate to better in-class note-taking,” English teacher Dr. Minkyu Kim said.

On the other hand, signing into accounts has also been made much more inconvenient by the device ban. “I’ve noticed issues with two-factor authentication,” school librarian Christopher Bowlin said.

For teachers whose classes have always relied more on analog materials, the shift has not been as dramatic. “I require students to turn in homework on looseleaf anyway, so for me it’s not a change” social studies teacher David Hanna said. “No difference at all for me,” he said when asked about whether students’ focus and attention have been affected.

The school has tried to alleviate these shortcomings by allowing students to use school computers and Chromebooks in the library. “In the library, we’ve been seeing a larger rush to get our Chromebooks,” Bowlin said. Students may also use devices in class if given permission by a teacher. However, many teachers are transitioning to using more paper materials and are not telling students to use their devices as much as in past years.

The administration acknowledges the challenges of limiting computer use to school-issued devices in the library but believes it is still too early in the year for the policy to be adjusted. “I don’t have an informed opinion yet since it is too early to determine what the impact will be. What I will say is that we’re in a transition and adjustment phase where how we operated/worked previously will most likely need to change. The state law was not intended to minimize student productivity by prohibiting internet-enabled devices but rather to minimize the distractions that the devices produce,” Principal Seung Yu said.

After dealing with the challenges of finding a way to enforce the ban, the administration already seems to have noticed early signs of success. “I think it’s too early to make an evaluation, as it’s only been the first few days of school. However, anecdotally, I have generally noticed a different tone in the past few days, including seeing more students talking to one another, reading books, playing games, and socializing in a way that they didn’t appear distracted or needing to check their phone regularly,” Principal Yu said.

Additionally, teachers have already noticed a positive shift in behavior among students. “It has been nice to see students looking ahead instead of looking at their phones when they’re walking in the halls and, especially, in the stairways, which was always a pet peeve of mine—phones in the stairway, that is,” Kim said.

Around the board, the policy has resulted in more in-person student discussion. “It’s been good to see students engaging with peers and teachers,” Bowlin said. “Students seem to be on board, and it’s been a positive change.”

Students also seem to share the sentiment that not having access to personal devices in the school building has deepened the quality of social interaction. “I don’t hate it as much as I thought it would because I’m making more conversation with people during my frees instead of resorting to my phone,” Wilson said.

Although this law is a state-mandated policy, Principal Yu’s views are closely aligned with its goals. Yu said, “I think tech companies know how to take advantage of our attention, impulses, and emotions so that it is almost impossible not to become so attached to your phone/device. I think the state law is positive in many ways because it forces everyone to not use their devices during the school day and offers a reprieve to perhaps rely on or develop some of the social and intellectual skills we have not had to practice in a while.”