Administrators say the phone-free policy has had an immediate impact.
“I have to start off by saying: transformative. I am sitting here with you talking and not dealing with issues from cellphones. So it’s been absolutely kind of game-changing for our community,” Zachary Stowell, Robert Eagle Staff Principal, said.
During their lunch period, instead of scrolling their phones, students are engaged with one another, from playing board games to sitting in groups chatting. Stowell says previous phone policies didn’t work.
“We realized that we cannot compete with billion-dollar companies. Like the social media aspect, where we’re reprogramming how kids are in or out within seven seconds. But then have to sit in a 53, 55, 58-minute class and engage with peers,” Stowell said.
Teachers see the difference too, like Dennis DeBell, who teaches seventh and eighth grade science.
"I would say 99% of students have their phones away every day. As a teacher, I ... no longer worry about what the student is doing under the table when I see them not paying attention, right? I know that ... I feel like their phone is away. I can focus on teaching,” DeBell said.
Hamilton International Middle School is another Seattle public school with a similar policy.
Their Parent Teacher Student Association surveyed teachers, who fully support it. One teacher anonymously wrote, “I’ve seen huge improvement in kids’ attentiveness to academics and face-to-face social interactions.”
Dr. Peter Stiepleman is a retired Missouri school superintendent, education consultant and advisor to Yondr, the company that provides the lockable pouches students keep their phones in during classroom hours. He says that more than half the states have either introduced, enacted or offered incentives through legislation or the Department of Education to move toward cellphone restrictions in schools.
“77% of school districts across the nation have some sort of phone policy that they can only use their phones for educational reasons. However, the real issue is whether or not you can enforce that. And so in the case of Mercer Island, they decided to go with the Yondr pouch. It’s an incredibly useful way of saying we’re going to go phone-free and support our kids. So kids maintain possession of their phones. They don’t have to give up their phones. But, yet they lock it and maintain it throughout the day,” Stiepleman said.
“Phone-free says look, we like technology, and we want kids to leverage technology for their learning, and there’s also an opportunity for them to put away their phone and not be distracted by all of the things that come with a smartphone,” he said.
"What we want to teach children are the important replacement behaviors about cellphones and how dangerous they can be. We’re asking children without a fully developed prefrontal cortex to make rational and reasonable decisions when we can see adults really struggle [with] their phones as well,” Stiepleman said.
Principal Stowell says that two years ago he and other faculty members started planting the seeds with students and parents that a stronger device policy change was coming. He says last year an eighth grade camping trip solidified their plan.
“It didn’t really hit until we took students to eighth grade camp, and we said no phones. And we said we’re going to go in the woods for four days. We’re going to put phones away, and we’re going to humanize our relationships; and we’re going to have some conflicts; and we’re going to navigate it; and we’re going to have a great time. And I saw kids that were completely different on Orcas Island than they were here, and I asked them. What is this? Who is this? [They replied,] ‘When people don’t have their phones, I can be myself.’ When you think about kids not having the opportunity to be themselves. They live with this mask on, this posture. It became evident that we needed to do something different,” Stowell said.
Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal wants all school districts to implement plans to limit cellphone use in the classroom by fall 2025.
