New Policy Brings Bad and Good
The cell phone policy which re-began this new year has had a month to settle in, and it’s time for this page to weigh in.
It would be easy to just say that the change, or renewal of a policy that kind of already existed, is “trash,” to summarize one staff member’s opinion. But the staff feels there is some good and some bad.
First, the bad.
We miss when we used to have–music.
Basically what happened was that there was a fire evacuation. At the time of the incident, there were a few classes in which students had Airpods in their ears.
That meant that some students couldn’t hear the alarm or the teachers’ instructions about what to do during the incident. That incident compelled the administration to have a new cell phone policy about how every student inside the building is not allowed to have Airpods on at any point in the school day after 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Many students were not very happy with this new policy, as they were restrained from the music they love to listen to.
Another simpler and more satisfactory solution could be a policy that would allow students to have only one earbud in their ear at any time during the school day. Just a thought.
But people must understand the reason why the policy was put in place. The students were not listening and were therefore at risk to get hurt from a potential fire.
And then the good.
Now that the policy is in place, good things have come along. Students have been not filming other students in the school without the other students’ permission. Phone usage is not distracting students as much. It is teaching kids, whether they need it or not, when screens are good and not good to use. It’s easier to get around the school without people bumping into each other. (Students were pointing out the latest posts on social media.) And screens are not good when trying to listen to a teacher who is telling a student something, so learning has improved.
So while the policy has not been satisfactory for some students, as in people have literally thought of doing petitions against the no cell phone enforcement, students must admit that some good changes have come with it.
But can we try the one earbud thing?