A controlled roar of student voices fills the Vallivue High School cafeteria. When asked if it’s noisier in the cafeteria this year than before, teachers, upperclassmen and administrators nod vigorously.

What’s missing from the picture are “personal communications devices” or PCDs. Under district control now strictly enforced electronic policyCell phones, headphones, and smart watches are all prohibited and must be kept in student lockers for the entire school day, including lunch.

Before, the district technically had a policy banning cell phones, but that policy was only sporadically enforced and mostly up to teachers.

The music is loud and students take turns requesting songs. A group of friends play cards while another does adult coloring. Students also play ping pong, cornhole and giant connect-four.

“Every day when I come to work, it’s like it’s 1999,” joked assistant principal Allen Dade. Students also say they feel like they have gone back in time.

The lively lunch atmosphere is part of first-year Principal Kellie Dean’s plan for a smooth transition to the new district-wide policy. Dean has worked in education for over 30 years and spent four years at Vallivue before becoming a principal.

Dean saw the idea of ​​“fun lunches” with games and activities on Good Morning America. Now she goes to lunch every day with a cart full of card and board games.

“The first few times we took (the cart) there, I felt like I was at a major league baseball game trying to pedal hot dogs,” she said. . “Now students are waiting for the cart and rushing to grab (what they want). »

A group of senior girls playing Uno said they never imagined playing card games during lunch.

At first, “no one was happy with (the telephone policy),” one of them explains. “But I think it’s kind of fun now. Every day you sit down, play a game, and talk about life. She said before that they would still talk, but they would also listen with headphones and on their phones.

It’s still an adjustment. The girls discussed how they need to plan their sports practices and social activities the day before school, and that forgetting can lead to stressful scrambles after school.

Regarding the new phone policy, Dean said, “I would say that even in the few weeks that we have been at school, it is almost palpable that we can feel the difference in our hallways, in our cafeteria, in the room class. The teachers told me it was one of the best things we ever did because the kids talk together. They communicate.

“In my class, I had the best engagement I’ve ever had,” said Nash Johnson, art teacher and wrestling coach. He explained that some students chose to stay on the phone during their independent work hours, causing them to fall far behind on their assignments. “This year it has been much easier to keep students focused during this time. »

Origins of politics

Last year, Vallivue School District principals began researching potential solutions to problems created by phones, part of a national trend. According to Education WeekAt least 15 states have passed bans or restrictions on cell phone use in school.

“I’ve been fighting this for years,” said science teacher Gary Griffith, who has tried various policies banning phones in class over the past 11 years and was thrilled when the district announced the change.

Dean explained that phones were not only an academic distraction, but administrators were also seeing an increase in the frequency of physical fights at school, which Dean said was heightened by students making videos of the fights and posting them on social media.

“The physical attack was alarming,” Dean stressed.

Although the district previously had a policy banning cell phones, it was not enforced consistently across the district, leaving teachers to decide and enforce their own policies.

Johnson said the inconsistency was difficult, with teachers wanting to control phones in the classroom having to choose to be the “bad guy” from the students’ perspective.

The school district sent letters in July detailing the strict new no-phone policy. Students quickly expressed their disagreement by sending a “Move-On” petition with “quite a few signatures,” according to Dean.

One of the signatures was that of student Tyler Buckley. “I wasn’t really happy at first,” he said. He was mainly worried about difficulties communicating with his parents and friends.

The district worked to address the concerns, which primarily related to parent/student communication during the school day. They explained that the office could forward grades to students if needed.

Adapting to politics

The new telephone policy has been in effect for approximately two months.

Junior Preston Hansen said when he first heard about the policy it was “pretty shocking” and he and his friends were a little angry. However, he said it helped once school started and they had an assembly devoted in part to discussing the new phone policy. “It gave us the answers to our questions about why they were doing this.”

Not all students expressed the same optimism. “The phone issue wasn’t really a problem,” one student said. “There were about five kids who were on their phones the whole time and it was unmanageable for the teachers…the biggest effect it had on us as students is…it’s a lot more difficult to communicate with our parents.” He said the office was not very effective in making up for this lack of communication.

Click here to watch a short video of student reactions to the new policy.