No calls, no texts, no problem: One month after cell phone restrictions were imposed, Spokane Public Schools teachers report benefits

Children pass notes in class again.

Beginning this school year, Spokane students will no longer be allowed to use their phones in class. Students fill their time with all kinds of retro activities from an era before mobile phones.

A month after the ban, students are adapting well as staff view enforcement as a ‘non-issue’, resulting in better conversations and engagement among their students.

The district tightened cell phone restrictions at its 57 schools this year, banning their use in the classroom across the board but allowing high school students to use phones during lunch and between classes.

At Glover Middle School, lunches are a stark contrast to the days before the ban.

The staff has provided students with numerous alternatives to occupy idle hands. In the cafeteria, staff installed two ping-pong tables, video game consoles with 1990s classics, a foosball table and outdoor activities such as spikeball and volleyball.

“They’re begging for things to do,” said Principal Mike Stark, adding that the school has spent about $1,000 on lunchtime distractions.

A group of sixth-grade boys, who call themselves “the Snipers,” loudly turned the bars of the foosball table where they worked every lunch. While in the middle of an animated competition, the boys said the game brought them together, but they still preferred to play on their phones.

Across the cafeteria, another group of sixth-graders said the lack of screens at their school has improved their attention and focus in class.

“I think it’s a good thing because I see kids’ grades going up instead of down and kids’ brains not getting brain cancer anymore,” said Natalie Whittaker, a sixth grader, describing the ill effects of phone use which is not linked to cancer, but is linked to mental health problems.

When phones were allowed, students would secretly take photos of each other in class or fuel drama through text messages. Students would set an alarm with distracting sound effects during class. That is less the case now, says Emma Schacht, a seventh grader.

“Last year was crazy,” Emma said. “Everyone was on their phones when teachers said they could and couldn’t do their work when they had to… but now, when it’s class time, there are no phones and teachers can talk without hearing, ‘Oh, this game is so cool’ and all that.”

Not having a phone allowed creativity to flow for sixth-grader Abby Goss, who wrote a multi-stanza poem in one class about nurturing friendship and the importance of understanding yourself before focusing on relationships with others.

“If you’re on your phone all the time, you have no imagination,” Abby said.

At Ferris High School, some students — but not all — pull out their phones during their 30-minute lunch break.

Many of them find this a nice relief, checking their phones for missed texts or new social media posts as soon as they leave their classrooms and decompressing on their phones for hours after school.

“I feel like when I’m home I have to make up for lost time,” said Ferris senior Lilly Everett. “My screen time has increased significantly, by a few hours.”

Although allowed, most students are not on their phones during lunch. Under the mild autumn sun on a recent day, several groups of children threw footballs or kicked footballs, although that was always the case in Ferris’ busy courtyard.

In classes at Ferris, headphones are more distracting than the devices they are attached to, teachers said. Although also banned, some kids have hedged their bets with wireless earbuds hidden by their hair or hood.

“They resigned, it’s a gamble,” said Keegan Tarbell, a biology and anatomy teacher at Ferris. “Either I can listen to my music, or my phone will be taken away.”

While concerned about the potential infighting with students, Ferris Assistant Principal Andrew Lewis said phone confiscation was not as common as he expected. On the first day, staff collected one smuggled mobile phone. Some days they take none, and some days it is as high as four.

Stark also said that seizures are few and far between and children rarely fight. Earlier in September, his high school students came up with all kinds of excuses when they were caught using their phones at school.

An eighth-grader pulled it out as an impulse to check the Taco Bell app for new coupons, she said at the time. Another student had set a daily alarm on her phone to remind her to tan in the summer; When it went off during choir class, her teacher took it away.

Another student faced a serious “family emergency,” she described. She saw the sibling of her older sister’s boyfriend at Glover’s and felt she urgently needed to call her with the news.

Teachers vary in how they enforce policies at the high school, students say. Some let children take photos of their assignments or issue warnings before confiscating cell phones.

Students can still complete assignments online in classes, using Chromebooks that students can check out. These devices are slower than using a phone, children said, and the school Wi-Fi blocks some websites they try to visit for class projects.

“I think you can get further with a real rock than with computers,” joked Ferris senior Lillian Finn.

“It’s not like it’s ruined my life, but it’s annoying when you have to use technology and wait 20 minutes,” said senior Lilly Everett.

While students’ experiences of the ban have varied, from calling it ‘nonsense’ to attributing it to a spike in grades, staff in every corner of the schools noticed a change towards students.

“Overall, it’s been a game changer,” said Ferris science teacher Darci Hastings. “Some kids hide their phones or headphones under their hoods, but it’s not as blatant as it was.”

Staff have attributed the restrictions to many behavioral improvements, such as better eye contact and other improvements, such as measurable increases in the number of books at the checkout at some schools

“We can’t leave books on the shelves,” said Jayna Ashlock, Glover’s library information specialist. “I hear so many more conversations about this.”

Children at Glover viewed 350 more books in September than last year, when cell phones were less restricted. Ashlock attributes this to decreased phone use at her school, although high schools across the province do not show the same patterns. Some have published fewer books this year.

Ferris ecology teacher Daniel Henry, who teaches classes outside, says he sees fewer children skipping class.

Even the cafeteria feels the change. Sheri Webber, kitchen manager at Glover, said she is happy to see more students lining up for a free hot lunch, crediting the restriction on phones.

“They chose the phone over food,” she said. “They come home and some don’t have the right nutrition. Here they do, and some of them rejected it.”

At Ferris, the decades-old practice of passing notes in the classroom is making a comeback, with children passing messages scribbled on gum wrappers and pieces of paper because they can’t text in class, leaving some teachers confused about how to control this resurrected trend.

“I’m just glad they’re practicing their writing skills,” teacher Tarbell said.