With the start of the school year at Los Banos High School, a new cell phone policy has been put in place to reduce cell phone usage in the classroom.

The new cell phone policy is much more strict than last year’s policy. With the new policy, students are not allowed to have their phone out at all during the school day. The only exceptions are during break, lunch, before and after school. This new policy has some conflicted opinions between staff and students.

There are three offenses for getting caught with cell phones outside of the designated times students are allowed to use it and they are as follows:

The first offense is a warning, lunch detention, parent notification, and the phone will be confiscated for the remainder of the school day.

The second offense is a conference with administration, parent notification, a weeks worth of lunch detention, and the phone will be confiscated for the rest of the school day and a parent or guardian will have to pick it up.

Finally, the third offense will be an in-house suspension, parent conference with administration, and the phone will be confiscated for five school days and be picked up by a parent or guardian. Any further offenses will result in phone confiscation for an entire semester.

This new policy has some conflicted opinions between staff and students. Many students believe that this new policy is too strict or should not have even been considered in the first place.

“I think it is pretty strict; students should be able to be on their phones after they finish all their work,” said Emanuel Hurley (10).

The staff, however, believes the exact opposite. They believe that the new policy is good for students and teachers and that the students can focus better during instructional time.

“I like the new phone policy because it encourages students to keep it put away because we’ve had a really hard time with cell phones in the past, and I like that this is now cracking down on that,” said Ms. Danielle Cavazos, Music Instructor.

Some of the reasons for this conflict being the punishment for the first offense. The first offense is a warning, lunch detention, parent notification, and cell phone confiscation for the remainder of the school day. Many students consider this to be too harsh of a punishment for being the first offense.

“I think lunch detention is fine, but at the end of the school day? That’s outrageous to wait that long. Just take it from them just for lunch, not the whole day,” said Armando Cazares (12).

Another controversial addition to the new cell phone policy is what teachers are instructed to do when students leave class to go to the restroom. Teachers are told to hold on to the students cell phone when they ask to use the restroom. When asked if the new policy needs any revisions, Ms. Cavazos stated, “My only concern is when students have to leave their phone in the classroom when they go to the bathroom. I don’t like that now I’m responsible for their phone because that’s also a liability issue, so that’s my only concern is what happens to their phone when they’re leaving it behind.”

Here is the cell phone use policy from the student handbook: