Beginning February 3, the Upper School will conduct a seven-week pilot program requiring phones to be away, in backpacks, lockers, or elsewhere, for the whole day. Areas including the gym lobby, side vestibule, and senior lounge have been designated as areas for phone usage. Upper School Director Mr. Mallett unveiled the new program on January 26, to students’ dismay.
In his presentation, Mr. Mallett referenced the Effects of Smartphone Addiction on Learning: A Meta-Analysis (2021) as evidence of the harmful effects of phones in educational settings. The report, compiling the findings of 44 studies on college students, found that “when a student spends time on the phone so that he/she neglects his/her practices of daily life, engages in excessive smartphone use, or excessively texting on the phone, there is a tendency to experience a decline in GPA.”
“I think the research is clear that the more time students spend on their phone, the less healthy that interaction is,” said Mr. Cortez, math teacher.
Many students have expressed their views about the heightened restrictions, with 85% of those who responded to a student-wide poll saying that they disliked the new bell-to-bell policy. “I think it’s not really useful because everything people can do on their phones they can also do on their computers… I don’t think it’s really necessary, especially for people who have free periods. I don’t really think it’s fair to not have them during those times, especially for music” said freshman Charlotte Rutter.
Mr. Mallett acknowledged that there are many of the same things students can do on their laptops as on their phones, but emphasized that computers have a critical role in the classroom; “we haven’t dug into that too deeply because I feel like laptops are really essential for the kids to go to school in today’s world… I can’t imagine how we would say that you can’t check your laptop to submit assignments or email teachers. What time is early dismissal? All those things.”
Student respondents were evenly split as to whether they thought that the restrictions would lower student’s screen time, however, just 21% said they thought it would help students focus at school. Among those who have friends at schools with similar phone bans, 87% of respondents said their friends do not like the policies.
Charlotte Rutter said “I think it’ll probably reduce [my screen time], but not by much, because I don’t really use my phone much during the school day.”
One student poll respondent said “I rely on my phone for things related to school, such as keeping updated with my email between classes, or looking at the schedule to see if we will have advisory, club/stat, etc., or sometimes I just look at my schedule on the school website because sometimes I forget it even when I’ve already looked.”
The Head of School Mrs. Adams stated that the purpose of the new policy was to encourage more face-to-face interaction among students, saying “When I walk up the stairs at lunchtime and I see six kids sitting on their phones not talking to each other, that’s kind of counter to what we’re trying to do as an institution.”
“St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes is a school first and foremost, but there is such an important social connection that they kind of go hand in hand. If we were only interested in school and learning we could do this online… but we are interested in the social piece” said Mr. Mallett.
Mrs. Adams emphasized that “we did lots of research and conversations with peer schools, whether that is church schools in the Diocese of Virginia, St. Christophers’ and St. Patricks’, for example, went bell-to-bell this fall. So one of the things we wanted to do was get feedback from schools who’ve been doing this.”
Several teachers and administrators interviewed said that they have read the book The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. The book argues that phones and social media are responsible for the mental health crisis among teens, encouraging schools to be phone-free and recommending that students not have social media until they turn sixteen.
However, a 2020 study from the NIH took a different view: “Given the importance of engaging youth in mitigating potential harms from social media, a prohibitionist approach would be counterproductive… for adolescents today, who have not known a world without social media, digital interactions are the norm, and the potential benefits of online access to productive mental health information — including media literacy, creativity, self-expression, sense of belonging and civic engagement — as well as low barriers to resources such as crisis lines and Internet-based talking therapies cannot be discounted.”
The NIH study still advocated for certain measures in educational environments, suggesting “proven individual and systemic interventions” as ways to help teens manage phone use.
Talking about the Lab School of Washington, where a family member works, Mr. Cortez said “It’s bell-to-bell, and they have not received a single complaint from families about the policy. They’ve had some students that have struggled with the policy. It is, like ours will be, I think, really on an honor system… They find kids playing games more during lunch, card games or board games, or talking more. There’s just more present interactions rather than virtual interactions.”
In response to a question about why students will retain their phones during the day, Mrs. Adams explained that “in today’s world, I think it’s very hard from a safety and security standpoint. Here, I want you to have access and your parents want to have access to you for safety and security. That is why we were not psyched about the idea of us taking them.”
Some people have told Mrs. Adams they wished the administration had simply implemented these new restrictions at the beginning of the year, but she responded saying “We very intentionally decided not to do that, because I think our relationships with students are such that we want you to be engaged in this conversation with us… We said we’re going to have places where you could use your cell phones, in the gym lobby and in the vestibule. And if those end up being terrible spots to do it? Great, tell us that. We want it to be in partnership. I also know with the new phone and laptop upgrades, you can mirror your phone onto your laptop. I know that, and you guys are smart, and you could battle with us on this constantly. That’s what we’re trying to avoid. We’re trying to do this together.”
