PHS cellphone restriction is a good call

Good on Powell High School for taking a firm stance on cellphones in school.

The new policy approved this year requires students to keep their phones off or on silent throughout the school day. It’s tough, I’m sure opposed by many students and it comes with serious penalties, but for the sake of our students I think it’s the right decision.

It makes me feel old fashioned — at 37 years old — to go to a restaurant and see tables filled with people not looking at each other but at their phones. And it makes me feel like part of the problem when I find myself glancing at my phone through most of an episode of a TV show at home. Smartphones can truly be addictive, but they can also be incredibly helpful. Most of my time each day on my phone is spent on Kindle reading books, or Audible listening to them — but not all.

And it’s the social media scrolling that I can be guilty of as well and other activities like that that students could sure afford to miss out on during the school day. Honestly, sometimes I long for the days when it was so much more possible to be completely out of communication more often — I think it’s part of the reason I enjoy hunting and fishing so much.

So, yes, this blanket policy will probably stop students from being able to do some completely accessible things on their phones during the school day, but previous generations did without them, so it’ll be fine. And this doesn’t prevent parents from being able to track students if needed, using shared phone apps, and still allows students to have the phones with them so that when the day is over, they can contact people as needed, or even scroll social media.

But the idea of providing a cellphone free space, one devoted instead to learning, seems like a decision that can only have positive outcomes.