It’s two months into the school year and students still aren’t thrilled with the ban on using cell phones for all but passing periods. 

But at this point, it seems that it’s not as bad as they thought it would be.

“I can go without my phone and have something different to entertain myself with but it’s nice to talk with friends,” sophomore Brinley Minton said.

The biggest complaint? Students can’t use their phones at lunch.

“I’m not affected much because of the phone ban because I’m in hard classes – but not having it at lunch makes me upset,” sophomore Asher Turner said.

The district’s ban on cell phones was designed to keep students’ focus on school work and not their phones. 

“The amount of notifications I get a day is crazy,” senior Marshon Rhodeman said. 

Teachers have seen a difference.

“I’m really enjoying the phone ban because kids are talking,” teacher Suzanne Sevick said. 

“I love to be able to hear my students communicate instead of just tapping on their phones. Some kids just don’t listen in class and then they get on their phones which makes it even worse in the long run.” 

Assistant principal Cheryl Parks agrees with the policy.

“Sometimes social media skews the view of the world,” she said. “It also isolates (teenagers) overtime even though they have access to everything worldwide, so they end up not having that connection with other people.” 

The discipline for phone usage quickly grows from lunch detention to in-school suspension to out-of-school suspension and even a loss of extracurricular activities, including sports.

But the phone ban has had some ramifications in surprising areas.

The phone policy has been difficult for some students. A good amount of students even use their phones as calculators.

“I occasionally use my phone as a calculator for math. I like using my phone more because it’s more convenient. Having to carry an additional calculator in my full backpack is inconvenient for the small amount of time I’d use it,” senior Colton Patterson said. 

Not having a phone also affects communication for some classes, clubs and teams.

“It’s definitely really frustrating trying to get interviews. Some students like to be interviewed more over text, too, so that makes it tough,” said junior Emmersyn Bonebrake, a yearbook editor.

“The phone ban is annoying because sometimes I need to text my coach about something but I can’t or I’ll get in trouble,” said junior Ramon Reyes, a cheerleader.