On Jan. 27, a new trial phone policy will take effect at Uni High. The trial period will last until the end of the semester. The policy,detailed in a document sent in the Jan. 13 UniWeek, states that at the start of every class, students must put their phones in phone caddies or leave them in their lockers. Teachers can authorize the use of phones in class for instructional purposes.
Both Uni Director Elizabeth Majerus and Assistant Director Bridget Hughes said the reasoning behind the phone policy is to increase student focus, encourage interaction among students, and support the social and emotional wellbeing of students. They expressed that phone policies are a nationwide topic, which started the discussion and process of creating the phone policy back in spring of 2024.
“This isn’t meant to be a punishment. This is not actually based on any student incident that happened or a collection of incidents,” Hughes said. “This is truly based on what we hear about from teachers and even from students about whether or not they’re engaged and how engaged they are and what those direct distractions come from when they’re not engaged.”
The administrators also shared with students a list of resources they used during the process in the StudCo Minutes on Jan. 16. This list included research the administrators cited, such as research on middle schoolers in Norway.
On Jan. 16, Dr. Majerus joined StudCo to talk about the new phone policy. Throughout the meeting, Majerus answered several student questions about the details of the policy, including a question whether students can leave phones in backpacks.
According to Majerus, you can leave your phone in your backpack if it doesn’t cause any issues.
“Nowhere in the policy does it say you can’t turn your phone on silent, put it in your backpack, and not touch it throughout the whole class,” Majerus said during the Student Council meeting.
Hughes said, “So it’s caddy or locker are the approved places, but I’m also going to just be honest. If you come into class and you don’t have your phone on you, and I don’t see it, I’m not patting you down or searching your backpack, right? I don’t want to encourage students to lie or be dishonest or anything like that, because I think you’re trustworthy. If you tell me that it’s in your locker, I’m gonna trust you. Because you’ve shown me that I can trust you. That’s the whole point. If that’s where you feel comfortable leaving it, that’s fine. If you are going to bring it into the room, I request that you put it in the caddy.”
The phone policy has been edited and revised, though it is unclear whether phones are allowed to be in student’s backpacks during class.
Both administrators also communicated that there will be student, faculty, and parent feedback forms before, during, and after the trial period.
The first feedback input form was released on Jan. 20, the form asks several questions about how people feel about the policy. Along with checkbox answers, there are places to expand more on a certain feeling towards the phone policy.
