Written by Sam Neidlinger / co-sports editor, Ashton Snow / staff writer
Nobody likes the new phone ban. Classrooms and lunchrooms are hectic and teachers’ jobs are now to hunt down anyone who’s on their phone.
For seniors, this is their first year with the phone ban, and since it’s their last year, they aren’t as happy about it as most of the other classes are.
Indiana governor Mike Braun is to blame. He signed the legislation in response to the world-wide problem of students being distracted by their cellphones. Because he’s older and didn’t grow up with phones, it’s hard for him to understand why some students need to use their phones during school.
Students can be distracted by their iPads as well, so are phones really the problem?
For some students, phones serve as a source of social connection and mental health support. Students who rely heavily on their phones for social connection may feel isolated or disconnected from their peers during school hours. Banning them could negatively affect their emotional well-being.
Also some other students depend on smartphones as a vital coping tool for managing anxiety or mental health issues; removing access might increase feelings of distress or dependence on alternative coping mechanisms.
It’s unfair for students with anxiety because, without phones, there are fewer ways to distract themselves from it.
If you finish an assignment, what else are we supposed to do besides be on our iPads or just staring at the time, wanting it to go by faster? It’s boring, and we’re still getting our screen time, just not on our personal phones.
Teachers who think the outcome of this will be good are wrong.
All it’s going to do is make students disobey the teachers more, there will be more talking. Although we don’t have our phones, we can still access AI on our iPads, so if we want to cheat we still can.
I think banning phones will not improve grades. If students don’t want to do their work, they won’t do it, they will find other ways to distract themselves and wait for time to just pass by.
The staff thinks phones are the problem, but overall it’s technology that is the problem. No matter what the law says about phones, students will always try to bypass the law by sneaking in their phones however they can.
Not having our phones doesn’t solve the issues of screentime or bullying or the use of AI on assignments because students will do whatever they want.
As a freshman coming in, I was upset because I was very excited about going into high school with phones. The ban the state put in place didn’t feel fair because, not only can we not have our phones, we can’t have any of the smart devices that we own. The only device they allow us to have are our school iPads that have too many restrictions.
I feel like that should allow us as students to at least be able to have more free space on our iPads when assignments are finished.
As a freshman, I feel that we should still be able to have a cellphone at lunch, passing periods, study hall and homeroom. The reason I say this is because there are kids that have no homework, and due to the restrictions on the iPad, kids with ADHD don’t really know how to control themselves if they don’t have something to do. Coming from a person with ADHD, I feel like they should have some exceptions for people who struggle.
