As the end of the semester approaches, students and staff continue to have opposing opinions on the phone pockets.
Starting this year, Lemont High School implemented phone holders in each classroom, requiring students to put their cell phones in the phone pockets for the duration of the class. This decision was relayed via email to LHS students and families prior to the fall semester.
“The cell phone policy is and has always been a part of teachers’ classroom management plan, similar to tardies,” Dean Robert Hammerschmidt said. “On one hand we can have a teacher that lets it slide […] whereas other teachers like [Mark] Tomczak are like ‘put them in the bin, [we] don’t want to see them out.’”
The implementation of phone pockets has seemed to increase productivity and connections among students not only in LHS but also in multiple other school districts.
According to a study conducted by Leida Chen (California Polytechnic State University), Ravi Nath (Creighton University) and Zhenya Tang (Mississippi State University), it can take up to 30 minutes for students to refocus on what they were learning after engaging in non-academic technology use.
Interestingly, there has been a skew in the number of dean referrals pertaining to cell phone use.
“What we have seen is a little bit of an uptick in frequency of which cell phones are held down here because a student has not put them away but has been asked to put them away, refuses to put them away or it’s been a multi-time offense,” Hammerschmidt said.
Although teachers and administrators enjoy the benefits of fewer distractions in the classroom, students seem to share a different opinion.
In many situations, many students see their phone as a comfort item and an extension of themselves. Having phones put up every class period may benefit staff, but not so much for students.
“I feel phone holders should be used during tests and quizzes and if a student is way too distracted,” an anonymous student said. “Otherwise, I think students should be able to have their phones on them in their bags as long as they are silenced.”
As the phone pockets have only been implemented for a semester, only time will tell if they are an improvement to LHS productivity and connection.
