Though a statewide cellphone ban is in effect for all Ohio school districts, students express doubt that it will be enforced.
To comply with an updated phone-use law passed over the summer, Ohio school districts were required to ban the use of cellphones and smart devices throughout the school day on Jan. 1. Cell phone use is now prohibited at any time during an instructional day for all Ohio schools. However, phones must be accessible in moments of emergency or for medical purposes. For example, cellphone apps can be used to track blood sugar for those with diabetes.
Sophomore Tommy Downing said that it’s important for students with health issues or disabilities to have access to their phones during the school day. “If my sisters had to go multiple hours without their phones, and their sugar crashed, they would have serious problems,” he said.
Junior Isaac Laytin said that to ensure phones are accessible in case of an emergency, teachers should be able to unlock Yondr pouches. “Teachers could just have magnets to unlock them if needed,” he said.
On Monday, Assistant Principal Logan Cawley sent an email to students outlining device-free expectations for second semester. Cawley wrote that students are expected to keep their phones and personal devices locked in Yondr pouches during the school day.
“If a student’s device is confiscated while staff work to maintain our focus on learning you will receive an email notification. For the first and second infraction, students can pick up confiscated devices in the Lower Cafeteria after dismissal. Additional infractions will result in mandatory parent/guardian device pick-up,” he wrote in the email.
The high school’s phone policy first went into effect at the start of the 2024-25 school year, complying with with House Bill 250, which required public schools to enact written policies that restrict student cell phone use during school hours by July 2025.
Senior Benedetta Strangi said that she doesn’t think the policy will be implemented going forward. “Me putting my phone in a Yondr pouch is not going to be enforced,” she said.
Junior Adelie Tilton also said that teachers are the most effective enforcers of phone policy. “They’re the ones who are around the students. That’s the only way it’ll work,” Tilton said.
Sophomore Benny Kerr said that the high school has not met its goals with the phone ban. However, he said he thinks administrators will enforce the policy going forward. “I think that they’ll make students show their phones locked in their Yondr pouches like they used to,” he said.
Strangi said that even if administration enforces the phone policy, it won’t be effective. Said Strangi, “They can add as many new rules to the ban as they want — students are always going to use their phones in school.”
