As of the 2024-2025 school year a new phone policy has been implemented. While many students dislike this policy it will be something that we will adapt to over time. The new policy for the school year seeks to limit possible distractions and promote engagement among students in the classroom by taking away students’ phones at the beginning of every class. 

While this is a great idea in theory, this new policy has had some unintended consequences. One of the things I have noticed is many students do not use or even acknowledge the “new” phone pockets unless told by teachers to put their phones in the pockets. 

Another thing I have come across is that of the few students that do acknowledge this new policy, there are many of them who have developed creative ways to avoid the pockets set up in the classroom. I think that a possible reason why this problem has been created is that although there are punishments for cellphone use in class, only some teachers actually follow through with the punishments. This leads kids into sneakily taking their phones during class time.

Now that teachers and staff have been enforcing this new policy, some students are getting their phones taken away. This is driving teachers to offer incentives to get kids to put their phones in classroom pockets. I decided to look at the student handbook to see exactly what the policy on the phone pockets are and I realized that there wasn’t very much actually about the pockets in classrooms.

When looking at the Wireless Communication Devices (WCD) section (at the end of page 113) to write this article I noticed that very little was actually written specifically about the pockets. The student handbook says, “Students who bring a cell phone to classes will be required to place it in the collection area of the classroom for phones.” Considering how the sentence before this says, ”Students are advised to leave cell phones at home or in their lockers if brought to school.” it goes to show that there’s really not much written about the phone pockets. 

Since these sentences are such a small part of the phone (WCD) section in the student handbook they could be easily missed by most people. A change in the way this policy and others are shown could make it substantially easier for people to find more important information in the handbook. Just a simple highlight or boldening of these important parts of the text could bring a lot more ease to the sometimes confusing student handbook. Changing the way that the student handbook is written would also bring outdated terms up to date and make things easier for people to understand. With these different changes I think that we could improve the way the student handbook is written while also making it easier for people to use and understand. With the new understanding of the phone policy, less people have the chance of getting in trouble or getting their phones taken away during school, allowing for a smoother transition for students and teachers this school year.