How some Oregon schools are trying to limit cellphones on campus

More than 70% of high school teachers in the U.S. say cellphones are a major classroom distraction, according to the Pew Research Center. At least 14 states have enacted bans or restrictions on cellphones in school, according to Education Week. Oregon has no statewide policy, but Gov. Tina Kotek said earlier this year she’d like to see one in the future.

Across Oregon, a number of schools have been adopting new policies to curb the use of phones in the classroom, ranging from districtwide rules to individual schools enacting their own policies.

Nick Lupo, principal at Taft 7-12 Middle and High School in the Lincoln County School District, began using Yondr bags last year at his school. The bags are pouches which seal securely through the use of a magnet, which is unlocked at designated stations when students are leaving campus. Students have possession of their phone at all times, but will not be able to access their screens until the pouch is unlocked at the end of the school day.

Gabe Pagano, principal of the Cascade Middle School in the Bend-La Pine School District, has been practicing a “silent and away” system. At the start of the day, students are required to turn off their phones and leave them in their lockers for the remainder of the day.

The principals spoke to “Think Out Loud” host Dave Miller about how cellphone use has changed over the years and why they view them as a distraction to classroom instruction.

The following highlights from their conversation have been edited for length and clarity.

How phone use has changed since the pandemic

Nick Lupo: We saw a good influx after COVID. When we go to the lunch rooms, for middle school, we’d see a lot of our boys gaming and we’d see a lot of our girls on social media, looking at image stuff, trying to get likes, those kinds of things … On the high school side, I’d walk into classes, we’d have kids streaming movies and then the second they exit out of the class, we’d see them go right to their device when they’re going to the next class. It was like they didn’t even look up sometimes going down the hallway because their devices were always there. It was sometimes disheartening. You’d walk to a table of boys or girls and they would not interact with each other. It was their time to stare at their device.

Gabe Pagano: After COVID, it seems like it spiked considerably and we started seeing cellphones really drift into the middle school realm. The conversation was coming. Keeping kids connected when we were in quarantine, I just think part of that, where we found ourselves was a result of putting cellphones in kids’ hands to communicate with others, communicate with families and then obviously it trickled into the schools more than what we’d seen normally.

Students didn’t like the new policy, but their parents did

Pagano: They didn’t like it. I mean, obviously, but I think it was a turning point for us when I was presenting at an open house. We probably had 600 families in the gym. We said this is our cellphone policy and we’re gonna stand by it because we just can’t have these distractions, and the gym erupted with cheers. We’re like, “OK, this was easy. This was a lot easier than we thought.” That told us the parents in the school were on the same expectations for cellphones and then the kids just had to deal with it.

Related: Where do Oregon and Washington officials stand on cellphones in schools?

What do you say to parents who have safety concerns about their child being without a phone at school?

Lupo: We have a safety coordinator here in the district. Their sole purpose is to create policies and procedures that the school then practices and gives information to the kids on how to have a lockdown, go on a code if there is an inside threat or an outside threat. So we practice those throughout the year. We’ll make sure that all the things we’re doing here at the school are for your students’ safety and we’re gonna do our best to establish all of that. That’s why we have phones in the classroom. That’s why we train our teachers. That’s why we train our (administration) and that’s why we work closely with our police department to have all those things in place.

Gov. Tina Kotek indicated she would be open to a statewide cellphone ban in schools. Would you agree to that?

Pagano: Absolutely. I think the benefits we’ve seen are too great. Kids talking to one another during lunchtime, kids working out their own differences, kids having conflict with one another and not the interface being between a device or through social media, working on skills. I couldn’t agree more.

Lupo: It’s not a gotcha moment. It is really just teaching the kids that you’re here. We’re here to teach you, to make sure you’re learning. I think that the education piece around it is really the huge section of this that we try to get to as well. Because we want kids to recognize that when they come here, you have access to a one-on-one computer, you have access to teachers and we wanna make sure that you’re learning here. I support it. It was an experiment a year-and-a half ago (at Taft Middle and High Schools), and I got really good support from a lot of people.

Related: Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek supports ‘statewide approach’ on school cellphone policies

You can listen to the full “Think Out Loud” conversation with Pagano and Lupo here: