As Tennessee students returned to class this year with new restrictions on cell phone use, students and teachers are still adapting to the state-required changes.
A week before classes began, White Station junior Miller Yarbrough learned of the new school policy.
“We can’t even have them out in classrooms, but we can have them out in hallways or the cafeteria,” Yarbrough said.
Though many school districts already had cell phone bans in place, the new state law requires all Tennessee public school districts to come up with more concrete rules. Still, Yarbrough says some of the guidelines are vague, like emergencies.
“I think in those situations they would let us use our phones, so I don’t really know how that would work,” Yarbrough said.
Lawmakers who overwhelmingly supported the bill said it would help students focus, which Yarbrough agreed with.
“I definitely noticed I’m not on my phone as much, and I’m not distracted as much,” Yarbrough said.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board member Amber Huett-Garcia said the law helped standardize policies across the state.
“There was already a lot of autonomy in school buildings, so if our principals didn’t want to allow them, they didn’t have to,” Huett-Garcia said.
She said the district made adjustments to its existing cell phone policies, such as requiring that phones stay in secure locations. “So, keeping it in a car, or a backpack, just essentially you can’t have the cell phone out during the day,” she said.
Principals, she said, also needed help enforcing the bans. The new enforcement system begins with a warning and can escalate to a code of conduct violation or a suspension. However, since many students have cell phones, the restrictions also had to be realistic.
“We don’t want unintended consequences,” Huett-Garcia said.
So far, Huett-Garcia says teachers have embraced the effect the policy has had on classrooms.
“It sort of surprised me,” Huett-Garcia said. “Overwhelmingly, teachers have said to me, ‘This is awesome.’”
As it turns out, there are some advantages to an old-school education—namely, lessons that are free of distractions.