Poll: SHS phone policy

By Jodi Eldridge

    Last year in May, a new phone policy was announced to take effect in the 2023-2024 school year. Now that the school year has started, what are the opinions of the policy’s effectiveness and its existence in the school in general? Over one hundred students responded to a survey about the phone policy and here are the results:

Results:

    27 students think the phone policy functions and serves its purpose. Only 12 students think the phone policy is not working and needs improvement. 38 students think the phone policy does not function and should not exist at all. The last and most popular opinion was that 40 students think that the phone policy works but isn’t really necessary.

    The four options were really combinations of responses for two questions regarding the phone policy. Those questions were:

Is the phone policy working?

57% of the students who responded to this survey think the phone policy is working (about half).

Should the phone policy exist?

67% of the students who responded to this survey think the phone policy should not exist at all.

Additional comments from students:

42% of the students who responded to this survey gave additional comments about the phone policy. Here are a few summaries of the different opinions there were in the responses:

• “Most of the time, there is a warning before it goes in the locker. Some people prefer it this way while some people wish the teachers did enforce the rule more.”

• “Students are the problem. There is no policy that can solve this problem. If there is a threat to have the phone taken away, then the student will simply be sneakier. Most people will ignore and disobey this rule. Some think that this is not a problem because these students are not disrupting anyone else.”

• “Taking away the phone will not change the fact that those students might not want to learn.”

• “The phone policy has helped people focus on schoolwork and has improved the level of engagement and even grades for people.”

• “Students may need their phone for personal reasons or because of safety concerns or even for educational purposes. Sometimes the teacher will take away a phone when the student has done nothing wrong. Phones can also be used for music, which can improve focus for some.”

• “Negatively affects the environment at Sammamish.”

• “The phone lockers feel like a phone jail, and are childish and excessive.”
• “I personally have seen an improvement in my classes. There are far fewer people distracted by phones.”