Walking into my 5th period, I painfully dread what is before me. The cellphone hotel, a felt phone holder with 50 slots, has become a controversial subject. Cellphone hotels were implemented to combat students’ alleged largest distraction, phones. However, the cons for us students certainly outweigh the pros.
Now more than ever, schools are being threatened with violence, especially school shootings. With many students’ first reaction in emergency situations being to tell family, cellphone hotels could cause total chaos; students sprinting through class to grab a phone would be a risky venture.
“It is not a good thing to have in class.” says junior Lexie Rowley.”What if someone texts me saying my brother or my dog is sick, but my phone is in a hotel?”
Being without a device so vital to our current society is annoying enough. Many classes have broken clocks, making time management a strong hassle in classes where our chromebooks are nonessential.
Phones also can help students study and relax. Many programs are more user-friendly on the phone, and music is a relaxing rebuttal to loud, stressful classrooms. Canvas, our main learning management system, is one example, as it is a longer and more difficult process to submit pictures on a chromebook than it is on a mobile device.
Even with this attempted solution, the problem still exists and, in my eyes, hasn’t improved. Not only teachers that I have talked to, but even students believe cellphones in class are a problem and there needs to be an effective solution.
The solution starts with the lessons. If students are bored and have a bunch of downtime, they will be more inclined to check their phone. However, in a more engaging lesson, distractions will seem less enticing.
California governor Gavin Newsom has taken steps towards restricting phone usage by signing Assembly Bill 272 into law, which is designed to limit students phone usage in class. What I like most about this bill is that it is supposed to go out of effect in a potentially dangerous scenario.
Instead of taking students’ phones away, we should focus on what’s on the phones. Social media is proven to be addictive, so even with it being hard to combat, attacking social media addiction is the real solution here.
