What does ERHS think of the phone ban?

Art by Faye Deetsch

Welcome back Eagles to another year of school! Back to school also means saying goodbye to our phones, as Eagle Rock has refined its phone ban policy.

Last year, many remember that we were expected to put our phones away in the infamous Yondr pouches at the beginning of first/fifth period. This year, the system has upgraded, and we are now told to lock our phones away when we enter campus.

Now, everyone has different opinions on this ban, and that got me thinking. What does ERHS think of this phone ban? I’ve interviewed six people, including two middle school students, two high schoolers, as well as two teachers. Here is all the information I’ve gathered.

One of the most popular opinions among the students is that the phone ban is useless; however, they had different reasons for thinking this. Some students said this because people cheat the system, and still use their phones. While others (myself included) believe this is useless because many students never took their phones out before the ban, so nothing really changed. Speaking of changes, I also asked the students who were here before the ban if anything had changed once it was implemented. The results were as such; nothing really changed at all. Many teachers had a “no phone” policy in their classrooms, and most students wouldn’t take it out unless absolutely necessary. The only change that happened was that there were more phones out during lunch, which makes sense since lunch is our free time. 

Another popular opinion is that the pouches were a waste of money. This school has over 2000 kids, and each pouch costs around 30 dollars. If you do the math, that adds up to over 60k dollars total (this is a rough estimate, likely underrepresenting the cost of the pouches). That is a lot of money, and many say it was a waste since people don’t use the pouches, as they all say they don’t have a phone. Most say that this amount of money could be used for other purposes and bigger problems around campus. People say that instead of pouches, they should use a different method, such as giving your phone to the teacher when walking in class.

Aside from interviewing students, I also interviewed teachers who had their own opinions on the ban. One teacher said that he believes the Yondr pouches are a good idea, but they should be stricter with it. He suggested that the school should hold onto your phones, instead of letting students keep them. When asked about the differences between teaching before and after the ban, he said that there wasn’t a big difference between the two. This is because students are still sleeping, playing games, or talking during class, instead of focusing on the lesson. He thinks that dishonesty is the real problem here, no matter how far you take the ban students will always be dishonest on if they have a phone or not. 

On the contrary, another teacher I interviewed said more of the opposite. She said that the pouches are a dumb idea, as phones are so important to today’s generation. Students need their phones to access certain things, and in the event of an emergency students don’t have a fast way to contact their parents. She says that there wasn’t a difference between teaching after the ban was implemented, because the majority of students never took their phone out unless it was break time. She believes that phones aren’t the problem, it’s the responsibility of students. Irresponsible people will be irresponsible, no matter how you implement the ban.

Overall, 5 out of the 6 people I interviewed think that banning phones is a bad idea. Remember though, this isn’t a representation of the entire school. Who knows, maybe the vast majority of students think the ban is a good idea. Believe what you want to believe about this ban. Everyone has their own opinions, and this is just a look into what ERHS thinks of the phone ban.