A recent study found teens often receive over 200 notifications on their phones every day. Those pings don’t stop during the school day either.
Dr. Jessica Sonntag is the superintendent of the Hinckley-Big Rock School District. Along with several other Illinois school districts, its school board recently voted to ban smartphones, along with air pod headphones and smart watches.
How will it work? When students come in, they’ll place their phone in a “Yondr” bag that seals with a magnetic lock. They can keep the bag on them, but it’ll be locked up the entire day -- even during lunch.
Sonntag says they’ve tried restricting cell phones already, but students still sneak around it. They could have asked kids to keep them in their locker, but she says students told the staff they’d feel less anxious if they had their phone on them, even if it was locked up.
And why now? She says, since the start of the pandemic, they’ve noticed a big increase in smartphone use in class. It’s hard to stay focused when you’re constantly getting Snapchat notifications. Sonntag says students are just not as engaged in class — but why they’re banning this tech is way beyond just the distraction.
“80% of all of the behavior issues that we have this year were cell phone related," she said. "And so, that says, ‘okay, so we have a management challenge around these phones.’”
So yes, the distraction is a big deal, but inappropriate behavior is even bigger.
“We had one student who was having an allergic reaction, who went to the bathroom and texted and called her mom, and the school nurse didn't know about it,” said Sonntag. “So, there's been those kinds of weird safety things. I'll tell you; we had a kid call for an Uber and leave out a side door. We've had Uber Eats delivered.”
She says she’s had students tell her they’re afraid to give presentations because other kids might record them. Teachers are scared of being recorded. They’ve even seen extreme issues like middle school students recorded while trying to use the bathroom.
And there are even bigger, cultural issues at the core of this decision. A generation of kids practically born with phones and tablets in their hands. A generation of teenagers much more anxious and depressed than the ones before. Academic outcomes trending downward.
Sonntag believes you can draw a line from the explosion of social media and smartphones in the early 2010s to those academic and mental health issues.
But the research isn’t clear if there’s definitive correlation AND causation between cell phone and social media use and teen depression and anxiety. There was also a devastating, once-in-a-generation global pandemic that isolated and caused pain and death for the families of millions of young people.
When making such a seismic choice, Sonntag says they also had to win over parents and the community. It’s why they held information sessions and invited people to ask questions.
“I do think the vast majority of those individuals who came were positive,” she said. “I had one incoming freshman there who said, ‘You know, before I came tonight, I asked my mom to homeschool me because I knew this was gonna be ridiculous.’ She was like, ‘but after hearing all of your presentation, I can do this.’”
They also had to reassure parents nervous about being able to get in touch with their kids in an emergency, by going over communication policies and showing that local first-responders were behind the decision.
And, with a plan like this, how do you measure success? Is it better test scores? Just fewer visible phones?
“I think we'll have a decrease in office referrals," she said. "We'll have a decrease in missing assignments. We'll have an increase in positive culture in the building. I know that's hard to measure, but you can feel the difference in a building when there’s a positive culture.”
Sonntag knows it could be rough the first week or two. So, she’s trying to prepare students and prepare her staff. It’s why she reached out to Dana Smith. He’s the superintendent at the Flossmoor School District. They’re a Kindergarten through 8th-grade district in Cook County that banned smartphones last year at the middle school level. They’re also using the Yondr bags.
“I'm not naive enough to think every kid is using their Yondr bag," he said, "but I do know that we don't see cell phones in the building, and student engagement is up in the classroom. Student discipline issues are down. So, the end result is certainly positive for our school community.”
Smith says academic metrics are tracking upwards too. And, he says, it’s important to make sure students know they’re not trying to be punitive. This isn’t a war on cell phones. He says there are plenty of appropriate times to use them socially and academically -- just not in class.
And, he says, even though student discipline issues are down, banning smartphones is not a cure for things like bullying.
“Really leaning into mental health support, social and emotional learning support," he said, "because it's that impactful for the kids -- and, frankly, now they're available."
So far, Smith says, it’s been a success, and they have no plans to go back.
This fall, it’ll be a brand-new world for Hinckley-Big Rock students -- one that maybe looks more like 2014 than 2024. Sonntag says they’re trying to give students more freedom too, even if it may seem like the cell phone ban takes them away. She says -- for the first time -- they’re going to allow students to go outside for lunch and are buying cards and board games students can play.
At the end of the day, she just hopes she sees more students connected: not to their phones, but to each other, to their teachers and their school community.
