MERIDIAN, Idaho — “In white paint, I am going to write, ‘4 years later’!” said Senior Brianna Griswold as she is getting ready for the new school year by painting her assigned parking spot outside of Idaho Fine Arts Academy.
She tells me, she and a majority of students feel the ‘no cell phones’ policy won’t change much because she says many teachers already do that for their individual classrooms.
“Everyone knows the jail cells they put in the front of the classrooms, with the pockets for your phones, and we know that that is going to be the most dreaded part initially,” said Griswold.
Not only is Brianna studying film, she’s also on her school’s student council. Their council recently met to brainstorm some ways to make the no cell phone policy less daunting for fellow classmates, like customizing phone pocket slips.
“Once you’re talking about the alternatives to make it more fun, more enjoyable, less of a ‘dreaded experience,’ it just didn’t seem like that big of a deal anymore. It’s really just like ‘Oh I don’t need my phone for an hour and a half of class. I can look at it during break, you know?” said Griswold.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Proposed policy to ban cell phones in classes across West Ada Schools
At the end of last school year the West Ada Board of Trustees unanimously voted to make classrooms a cell phone free zone. Board of Trustee member Dave Benetti tells me that for middle schools, this will look like keeping cell phones in lockers during school hours…. For high schools, school administration and teachers will likely have the final say on what’s best for their students day-to-day.
“Cell phones are wonderful. They have their place but also as far as distractions are concerned they’re probably the most distraction that you could probably get in and not only when it’s there not doing anything but just waiting for something to ding or the latest notification come in just remove any of that from the teachers from the students and keeps the focus on instruction,” said Benetti.
Benetti also said teachers, faculty and parents are generally on board and supportive of the no cell phone policy, “and from a lot of the kids as well they’re looking to try to say, “Okay, this is actually something that gets in the way of what I why here, why I’m learning,” and they appreciate the fact that now it’s the same for everybody so that nobody’s actually missing out.”
