Eliza Van Driesche: Phone policies in schools

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Published: 02-04-2025 7:54 AM

I just read the Feb. 1 article “Board sees no easy answers on phones in school.” I am a freshman at Frontier Regional High School.

One thing that other newspaper readers might not know is how the passing periods have changed. I have been regaled by family with stories of noisy passing periods, of gossip and yelling and dropping books, of running feet and spilled drinks in a noisy mash of humans. But those passing periods seem very far away to me.

At Frontier, our phone policy is that our phones get put in a rack at the beginning of each class, and are given back to us at the end of the class period, usually a few minutes before the bell rings. Those former passing periods seem so distant because the hallways between classes are nearly silent. It is quiet, very few people converse, and almost no lockers slam. We march through the halls, heads bent over glowing screens.

Even at the end of class, when we are allowed to take our phones back and check our messages, any conversations that were being had go quiet.

I have a cellphone, but a limited one, and do not have social media of any kind. I am almost never on my phone during the school day because there is nothing to do with my phone other than text, and there is no reason to text anyone during school. I often feel strangely left out — everyone else is in this web of media, and has this instant distraction. I do not want to join in, however; I do not need the silent drama and gossip conveyed through text.

I believe that the middle school’s policy is better — phones must be off and away, not even in a pocket, during the whole school day. I feel as though I would touch my phone less if I never had to take it out of my backpack.

In middle school, passing periods were just as lively as the stories of those of past generations. People yelled, whooped, tripped, gossiped, ran. I believe that this would be a better policy.

Eliza Van Driesche

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