Are phone policies getting stricter?

Ellie Blumberg and Alayna Caris
eSomethin staff

What do students and teachers have to say about the new boundaries on phones?

Schools around the country have been setting boundaries on the usage of phones, cracking down when students are on phones. For now, Perrysburg students have to put phones away in caddies.

Read eSomethin’s reporting from when the caddies were introduced.

When it comes to following the rule, many follow it and some pass it up, according to Melanie Lyons a teacher at PHS.

“There are many students that do follow the phone rule, but balancing it out many students also break these rules. Without the rules being stricken students will continue to break these rules without being punished,” Lyons said.

Clearly PHS is trying to get students to understand the importance of using phones appropriately.

A foreign language teacher at Perrysburg High School, Melanie Lyons, said, “I believe the phone policy makes my class better because it is a class based on face to face communication and distractions were real when the phone policy was not here and took away the learning from the students themselves. I prefer that this rule is strict.”

Some students expressed a different viewpoint.

Momina Gill said phones can be useful, but also harmful in emergency situations.

“I feel like that’s why we have our phones in school. However, if there is a stranger in the building and someone’s phone goes off while they’re on us, that could be a very dangerous situation. Then again if there was a situation like a tornado or a fire, I would want to be able to notify or contact my parents,” Gill said.

Many other schools in other states such as Indiana and Florida have also implemented phone policies in very similar ways. But how does Perrysburg enforce its rules?

Gill said, “If a student is caught they typically take away student opt outs or it may result in student detention depending on the circumstances. Students are forced to either store their phones somewhere out of sight or place them in shoe caddies.”

Some students chose to just flat out not listen to the rules handed to them and rebel.

Ishita Gorapalli said, “I still see kids in class that sneak their phones without getting caught all the time. How is this fair?”

Even though some students do like the rules, others are against it. Students like to claim that phones can be a great resource for work and learning, yet teacher Melanie Lyons says otherwise.

“One of the biggest things I see is that students take pictures of homework and use AI or send it to one another. Some are even bold enough to do it in front of us teachers, which tells me it is a major problem and needs to be resolved.”

Along with that, students still ask if a teacher can have their phone out in class, why can’t the students? And if a phone is a student’s property, why should they have to give it up to someone else and or be punished for touching/using it? But, at the same time, the phone ban gives students time to interact with each other face-to-face and not be distracted by technology at all points at time, proving phone policies may just be where they need to be.

Other stories on eSomethin: