Last year, Junior Marah Faber was able to keep her phone with her throughout her school day without worries of it being taken. Now, when Faber walks into a class, she is required to place her phone into a classroom caddy or risk having it taken away. 

“I believe that the benefits are good, but the teachers are taking it too seriously. For me, my phone has never been an issue,” commented Faber.  

Over the last couple of years, Craig has implemented several different cell phone policies with the goals of limiting student’s access to their phones. This new policy change comes from the increasing “sources of distraction, antisocial behavior and conflict both at home and at Craig High School,” that phones are having in the Craig community. This new policy has been more effective at eliminating loopholes in cell-phone access than previous years.

Two years ago, the cell phone policy was universally known as being “bell to bell no cell.” Contrary to this statement, most students were allowed to use their phones in class as most teachers made their own rules regarding cell phone use. In the case of most teachers, students were allowed their phones, but weren’t supposed to use them during instructional time or while taking a test. 

Last year, Craig introduced a new method of restricting phone access called Yondr. Yondr worked by magnetically locking phones into a pouch at the start of a class and unlocking them by breaking the magnetism at the end. Students were able to keep their phones on their desk, without the teacher having to worry about them being on it.  

Andrea Nickel, a social studies teacher part of the Craig Pilot Program for the Yondr pouches said, “They worked well at first, but over time, the pouches would break or students would break them, and then they didn’t help.” 

According to Craig High School’s Cell Phone Policy Parent Hand Out, “Student cell phones, headphones, or other Personal Communication Devices (PCD) should remain in their lockers during class time or in the classroom pouch.” Phone use is “only permitted during passing time, before school, after school, or during lunch.” “Students are not allowed to have them in the hallways or restrooms during class time.” Students found not following the new policy will have their, “phones confiscated and taken down to the AP office to be collected at the end of the day.” Repeated offenders will face increasingly harsher consequences.  

Throughout the weeks of October, we will be releasing several different articles related to the new policy change to better express the perspectives of those affected by this new change.