As the school year starts, Mount Pleasant High School students will be parting with their cellphones.
The school will join others across the state and the nation in limiting phone usage. Seven states (Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Virgina, South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana) have laws on the books limiting student phone usage.
In a Facebook post, the school says the move will “improve student learning” and “decrease distraction.” The rules state that phones aren’t allowed in hallways or in classrooms. Phones must stay in lockers. Students will still be allowed to use them during lunch.
David Simpson is the principal of Northern Hills Middle School in Grand Rapids. They are in the Forrest Hills Public School District. He says he started a pilot program in 2018 limiting phone usage. “We started seeing an increase in concerns with mental health,” he said.
At Northern Hills, phones go in lockers during the school day. Simpson says he’s seen improvements. “Our kids started talking to each other more. They were interacting in the hallways. We really believe in collaboration and connection among our kids, and we saw kids connecting more.”
Simpson said the policy, along with support from families and staff saw bullying go down. “Our cases of bullying or harassment online, we used to spend a lot of time investigating that, really kind of ceased to exist,” he said. “Our kids are feeling healthier. We had less incidents of hospitalization for mental health needs at the time, and this was prior to COVID and so we just saw a lot of huge success.”
Still, parents and safety advocates fear phone limitations will make it difficult for children to communicate with parents during an emergency. Those fears are more pertinent in the wake of a school shooting in Georgia, which left 4 dead.
Simpson says that, as a dad, he understands the concerns, and believes his school has measures to ensure safety. “We have procedures and policies in place, and you saw them in Georgia just now, with doors that are locked, communication plans, we have all those protocols in place,” he said.
Simpson said that he does, however, understand the need for a line of communication.
“For other emergencies that kids have, they can always access our office,” he said. “Sometimes if a kid needs to use their cell phone, they're able to come down and get permission to do that. Bring it down to our office and use that and then bring that back. Because we want to make sure we partner with our families.”
The Mount Pleasant High School policy also bans wireless earbuds. The school will provide wired headphones. Students will be sent to the office for violations of the policy, with progressive action for further violations.
