As part of efforts to curb phone usage during class time, many Los Altos High School students are now required to leave their phones in a teacher-administered caddy or pouch at the start of class. In past years, it was only required that students put their phones away in their pockets or backpacks.
The school paid for the caddies at the request of teachers, but teachers decided individually whether to hang them in their rooms, according to Los Altos High choir teacher Lauren Diez.
The implementation of the new caddies are expected to help minimize distractions and subsequently help students focus in class, Los Altos High Principal Tracey Runeare said.
Although cell phones have always been required to be turned off during class times as part of the Los Altos High School rules, teachers agreed that phone usage was still heavily prevalent, Runeare said. As such, teachers have grown increasingly concerned in recent years, Los Altos High chemistry teacher Trina Mattson said. But this is the first year several teachers have acted on these concerns in unison.
“This year was just a grassroots movement to make our jobs a little easier by just having [students’ phones] where we can see them,” Mattson said.
Phone policy decisions are made on a classroom-to-classroom basis, so students are experiencing a range of restrictions. Junior Neil Marwah saw five or six of his classes implement pouches or caddies. Meanwhile, sophomore Naomi Ohye said only around three or four of hers had.
Some teachers already had phone policies in place, including Mattson. She said she is glad to see that more teachers are adopting phone policies in their classrooms. Mattson even puts her own phone in a caddy spot to encourage students to commit to the no-phones rule.
According to Diez, the pouches — which are new for her this year — have been a positive addition to her classroom environment in terms of minimizing student distraction.
However, students like Marwah are skeptical that the new policies improve concentration because students could simply seek other distractions.
“Most people just continue playing [games] on their computers instead,” Marwah said. “I don’t think it’ll have a negative effect, it just won’t really do anything.”
In addition, there are concerns that the pouches could easily create chaos during emergencies if students crowd around the phone caddy, Ohye said. As it is only around three weeks into the school year, teachers and students have yet to see these measures’ long-term impacts.
“I really hope that [students] start to see the difference in their level of focus and engagement over time,” Diez said. “I’m curious to see where we end up throughout the year with these new policies.”
