Amidst nationwide debates over phone usage in schools, Multicultural Literature and Voice teachers Rachel Wan and Erin Walsh launched a no-phone pilot program last semester.
The pair presented overwhelmingly positive results to both M-A admin, and the Shared Decision Making Site Council, both of whom are currently attempting to create a uniform cell phone usage policy. According to Wan and Walsh, the policy is meant to combat social anxiety, disengagement, and cyberbullying, all of which have been empirically proven to be exacerbated by excessive phone usage.
California’s Phone-Free School Act, A.B. 3216, was passed on Sept. 23, 2024. The bill requires all school districts to implement policies limiting or banning cell phone usage by July 1, 2026. M-A currently lacks a uniform cell phone policy, which, according to Wan and Walsh, has hindered students’ focus and socialization.
Wan and Walsh’s program involved 11 teachers who primarily teach freshmen and began at the start of the 2024-25 school year. They require students to place their phones in phone charts, which are then used to take attendance. If students do not have their phones with them, they are allowed to use a “no phone” sheet instead. Students caught violating the policy first receive a verbal reminder. If caught again, teachers call home, and if students violate the policy a third time, students are sent to the office.
“As a ninth-grade teacher, it is really helpful because I’m setting the tone for how students come into the school,” Wan said. “If they have the expectation that most, if not all, ninth-grade teachers are asking them to do this thing, then the goal is that in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, they will also be seamlessly doing the same thing.” La Entrada, Hillview, and Ravenswood, M-A’s main feeder schools all prohibit any phone usage at school.
San Mateo High School began using Yondr pouches, magnetic bags that students lock their phones in for the duration of the school day, in 2020. Results have been overwhelmingly positive, with students socializing more and increasing involvement in school-sponsored activities.
Before launching the initiative, Wan and Walsh collected data on student phone usage. An overwhelming 74% of students spent an average of over three hours on their phones every day. 83% of students reported their phones affected their school work in some way, and 52% reported they checked their phones at least once every class period.
“Last year, one of the main things I realized is when I would give them [students] time to be mindful, or space to take a break, they would scroll right away. It would be very quiet and very unnerving because they’re young people,” Wan said. “They used to be talking, making a lot of noise, and just being around each other. It was really disconcerting that they were just sitting there quietly on their phones.”
Following stricter enforcement of phone policies, teachers have found their students to be more productive and engaged during class. 89% of teachers surveyed found phone charts to be “very effective,” with the remaining 11% characterizing it as “generally successful.”
“There’s less of me trying to police what they’re doing, and more of them just attempting to manage their own thing, which I think is very normal in ninth and 10th grade,” Wan said.
At the SDMSC meeting where Wan and Walsh reported their findings, community members raised concerns over the limitations of solely using phone pockets, which are less forceful than other policies. Unlike phone policies at many other schools, this policy would still allow students to use their phones at lunch, brunch, and passing periods, which are crucial times for socialization.
However, because of Yondr’s success, they are no longer offering pilot programs, only immediate school-wide implementation. This creates obvious risks, as the school would be unable to test a bell-to-bell policy before investing.
Parents raised concerns over being unable to contact their kids during the school day. While the school is also working on increasing communication with parents beyond email, phone charts allow students to communicate with parents during passing periods and lunch, whereas Yondr prevents any form of communication between parents and students throughout the day.
Wan and Walsh believe a consistent school-wide policy is necessary to establish expectations and eliminate confusion for students.
“So many schools who have already implemented phone policies are saying, in a very thoughtful way, they have loved the way they’ve transformed the campus,” Wan said. “It also just gets rid of so many underlying challenges of being a student in this day and age, with things like cyberbullying, being left out of things, or people taking photos of you without your consent.”
Wan and Walsh are piloting a new program, in which about 30 student volunteers will leave their phones in the office all day. While the pair anticipates a bell-to-bell policy taking a few years to be implemented, they have high hopes for how the campus may transform.
