Why Crackdown on Cell Phones in Metro Atlanta Classrooms Might Not Be Easy

Credits: Ben Hendren

Credits: Ben Hendren

Rivera and teachers at about 20 schools in the Atlanta metro area will soon be faced with how to win this school year.

This summer, a handful of districts and some school principals decided to ban cellphone use by middle school, high school and some elementary students. The move came after teachers said students were easily distracted and were spending much of their instructional time texting or using social media. The new school year begins Tuesday in some districts. Classes begin Thursday in Marietta.

For some schools implementing the change, such as Marietta City Schools and Midtown High School in Atlanta, students will be required to place their phones or other small personal devices, such as smartwatches, in pouches that will be locked throughout the day. The pouches can only be unlocked with the help of a teacher or other authorized administrator.

In DeKalb County, some schools have taken this approach, but others have decided to install a cell phone locker. In Cherokee County, students will now have to keep their devices on silent and out of sight.

Decatur High School students will place their phones in a lockable holder provided for that purpose at the beginning of each class period each day. Students with accommodations requiring the use of a cell phone will be exempt from the protocol.

Teachers hope the stricter measures will reduce distractions and increase student engagement during class. Rivera said the new policy will help achieve those goals.

“I genuinely want kids to interact with each other, and I think that could happen as naturally today without a cell phone as it did in a cafeteria 20 years ago,” Rivera said in an interview. “I want our kids to learn how to shake someone’s hand. I want our kids to learn how to start a conversation.”

Challenges

Implementing the changes, as Rivera stressed at last month’s meeting, won’t be easy. In addition to students looking for ways to get around the new rules, some students have used their phones and other devices to create videos or for other purposes for their homework.

Dave Anderson, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, thinks limiting cell phone use in classrooms is a good idea, but warns that it will certainly bring challenges that districts may not be fully prepared for.

“You try to anticipate all the ways they might break the rules, but they’re usually more inventive than the adults who are trying to police the rule,” Anderson said.

Anderson had some ideas about how students would get around the new policy.

“Teenagers are the champions of deciding whether the rules are too strict or shouldn’t necessarily apply,” Anderson said. “Kids will put disabled cell phones in pockets and then take their cell phones with them,” he said.

“The children will decide on a collective device that they will all use and that they will not return,” he continued.

Lashanda Nelson, a teacher at Briarlake Elementary School in DeKalb County, said cellphones are sometimes a problem even for younger students, mostly in fourth and fifth grade.

“I had to tell the kids to turn off their phones because they would ring in class,” Nelson said.

She also said that even though the phones will be in pouches or lockers, she hopes parents’ minds will be put at ease because students will still have physical access to the devices.

“It’s not like students don’t have access to their phones, or like the phones are in a secret room, in the office or in the media center,” Nelson said. “No, they’re going to be on the kids’ shoulders.”

At Marietta and Midtown High, students who violate this policy will have their phones confiscated after the first offense. At DeKalb, the consequence will depend on the offense, but could include confiscation. At Cherokee, disciplinary action includes a 10-day ban.

Some parents said it was important for their children to have cell phones in case of emergencies as school shootings became more common. As manufacturers developed smartphones, many teachers took advantage of the technology, using the devices for classroom exercises.

Brittany Cunningham, principal of Cross Keys High School in DeKalb County, said that instead of using cell phones for instruction, she wants the school to use Chromebooks or other district-provided technology.

Betsy Bockman, principal of Midtown High School, has similar plans. She said Chromebooks are a reliable resource and meet all educational needs.

“Every student has a Chromebook, and the Chromebooks are tailored to each task,” Bockman said. Students don’t need cell phones or other personal devices during the school day, she added. If necessary, students can also use their Chromebooks to contact their parents.

But Piper Boatwright, a senior at Midtown High School, said that while laptops can be a good resource for school, they’re not a replacement for cell phones. Boatwright said that while she’ll be able to communicate with her parents, laptops aren’t always as accessible.

“It’s not like I can just pull out my computer and send my parents a quick text,” Boatwright said. She worries if there’s an emergency at school, she said.

Credit: contribution

Credit: contribution

Some teachers and students have had problems with Chromebooks. Many of them have malfunctioned or broken within a few years for reasons unrelated to user treatment, ABC News reported last year. They are also difficult to repair, critics said. Google announced in September 2023 that its Chromebook platforms would get regular automatic updates for 10 years, and the company is working on faster processes to fix them. Some schools in other states have switched to different types of Chromebooks.

“A difficult first month”

In the meantime, the countdown to the implementation of the new policies has begun.

Rivera said the Marietta district has a plan in place, but depending on how the first few weeks go, things may need to be adjusted.

Phones will be locked throughout the day, even during lunch, to be unlocked during students’ last class period.

“In the last five minutes of the day, there will be an announcement that says, ‘Teachers, you can unlock the pouches,’” Rivera said.

Using a specialized magnet, teachers will then move from student to student, unlocking the pockets one by one.

In DeKalb County, schools are following a similar protocol, but the changes won’t be implemented immediately. Instead of starting on Day 1, the policy will go into effect Sept. 3. The district will take the month of August to implement lockdown mechanisms and to talk to students and parents about the changes.

“We’re going to walk people through the process as we get closer to implementation day,” said Darnell Logan, DeKalb’s director of student relations.

In total, 18 schools, including a mix of elementary, middle and high schools, will test the new policy – ​​with 10 schools testing the pouches and eight testing the lockers.

At Midtown High School in Atlanta, Bockman hopes the new policy will force students to actually interact with each other, rather than relying on the internet.

“The exchanges don’t happen through social media. They happen at school, face to face,” Bockman said.

Boatwright, the Midtown student, said the new policy will be a big change.

“I think for students it’s going to be a lot harder to adjust to the work style or focus on school all day,” Boatwright said. “I think the first month is going to be tough.”