LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE)—Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) leaders are working on a way to enforce a cellphone ban in schools.
However, one local high school has been banning phone use for months, and staff there have said the ban has had promising results.
“On our last survey, 44% of our students felt like they were more engaged in class and learning more than they were at this time last year and those findings are consistent throughout the course of the year,” Fern Creek High School Principal Rebecca Nicolas said.
Nicolas has worked at FCHS for 15 years, seven of those as principal. She said she has seen a significant increase in the use of cell phones in school in the time that she has been there.
“We know there’s a cell phone policy, but we honestly had trouble enforcing it because cell phones were everywhere and we really didn’t have a great tool for enforcing that,” she added.
Because of that, school leadership felt the need to find a way to enforce district policy that already banned the use of cell phones in schools. Through a guiding coalition made up of staff, parents, alumni, JCPS leaders, and even first responders, FCHS came up with a pilot program using Yondr pouches.
Every student at FCHS has their own lockable Yondr pouch. When they come into school, they have to put their phones inside the pouch and lock it. At the end of the day, they can find unlocking stations throughout the school to open their pouches.
“We wanted students to retain possession of their phones, but we didn’t want the burden for enforcement to solely fall on our teachers every single class period,” Nicolas said.
Nicolas said staff have seen impactful change in students. She mentioned that aside from more engagement in the classroom, students now spend lunchtime connecting with each other. She added that FCHS had more books checked out from the library in the first two weeks of the school year than they had the entire prior school year.
Raziya Cisse, a senior at FCHS, said she has felt that change firsthand.
“Especially when a teacher is teaching something that’s a little more difficult, I’m actually able to be engaged in the lesson and ask the questions that need to be asked to help me on homework and things like that,” Cisse said.
Cisse said it felt weird not having her phone with her at all times at first, but she’s gotten used to it by now.
“I don’t even care to check my phone,” she said. “I feel like it’s become a part of my daily routine. I’m going to school and I know I’m not going to be on my phone. None of my other friends are on their phones, so we’re going to be interacting anyways by word of mouth.”
Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio said buying pouches like the ones FCHS has for every JCPS school would cost the district somewhere between $2-3 million. However, school leaders said cell phone bans may look different in every school. School board members have said they would want a new enforcement policy in place by May so it can be implemented by the start of the next school year.
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