As I walked into Francis Lewis High School on the second week of school, I noticed many students on their phones either in the hallways or in classrooms. One of those students was me. I was in class when I used my phone to text a friend and my teacher caught me and took my phone away from me. I then told myself that this policy is really getting serious.

Francis Lewis implemented a no cell phone policy in classrooms and the library this school year.  Students are allowed to use their phone in the cafeteria during their lunch or free period and in passing to classes between periods, but not after the late bell.

“There is a serious lack of human communication skills that are starting to build because people are communicating with each other digitally and they’re not communicating with each other face to face as much,” Principal Dr. Marmor said.

“I did not make this decision alone,” Dr. Marmor said. “I consulted the school leadership team. The school leadership team includes parents, teachers, students, administrators [and] school aides. It includes a representation from the entire school. The school leadership team was completely in favor of me doing what we did.”

Although there are benefits to using cell phones for educational purposes in the classroom, Dr. Marmor believes that cell phones do more harm than good because of the lack of control teachers have in monitoring cell phone use during instruction.

“I’m 100% positive that they do more harm than good,” Dr. Marmor said.  “Now, I would say that if there was a way to control what you’re doing on the phone when you’re in class, I wouldn’t have as big of a problem and I wouldn’t really mind. So for instance, we can list probably 50 great things that you could do with your phone in class that are really good, positive things. But the problem is right now there’s no technology yet.  It doesn’t mean it’ll never come, but right now there’s no technology that can tell me which kids are in the room doing what they’re supposed to do with the phone, and which kids in the room are actually doing something else. It looks the same to the teacher.”

Now that this policy has been implemented, some students are complaining about the negative effects of not being able to use their phones in school.

“It affects my social life terribly because I have no friends at home and now I can’t talk to my friends in school,” senior Suriana Shalamov said. “I think that the policy is terrible, and it’s not good for students because we could use it for educational purposes, and it shouldn’t be totally not allowed at school at all.  Now I don’t want to come to school because I can’t even be on my phone without it getting taken away for a whole day.”

Junior Samuel Lee shares Shalamov’s sentiments.

“I do not like this policy because I feel more restricted and I like my phone,” Lee said. “I feel like last year was a lot more lenient. I believe it’s harder to talk to my friends or just peers around me because I can’t really relate to them as much and I don’t know what they do on their free time.”

In October, Dr. Marmor decided to open the courtyard as a cell phone free zone so students can have fun and play games without the need to use their device.

“So the courtyard was specifically designed so kids could go outside, play with each other, have a good time, and communicate with each other like kids,” Dr. Marmor said. “I just added Jengas, I added badminton, chess, I added Connect Four. We’re adding another foosball table [and] we’re adding another ping pong table.” 

“The number of times I had to walk into the cafeteria, watch 10 to 15 kids sitting at a cafeteria table, none of them talking to each other, all playing on their phones,” Dr. Marmor added.  “It’s disturbing.”

The safety of students here at Francis Lewis has always been Dr. Marmor’s number one priority, so he decided to let students keep their phones for this reason, and this reason only.

“The reason that you still have your phones on your bodies, in other words, in your possession, is specifically because of emergencies,” Dr. Marmor said. “If I wasn’t worried about emergencies at all, then we would’ve just banned phones completely.”

When a student’s phone is confiscated, a dean will give a receipt to the student and a parent can pick up the phone between the hours of 8 am – 3 pm the following day.

“We have receipts that we have to fill out where we record the students name, their 9 digit OSIS number, and date, and time of the location where the phone was taken, and then we give the students a copy of the receipt and the other receipt gets wrapped around the phone,” dean & economics teacher Ms. Antolos said.

The new cell phone policy in classrooms “helps the kids to focus a lot more,” according to English teacher Ms. Henry.

“I teach English this year so it doesn’t really impact me at all,” Ms. Henry said.  “I do think that cell phones can be a source of really great things, but they’re also a source of really terrible things and more importantly, just a huge distraction for everyone. So, technology-wise it’s not really impacting us at all because we have access to laptops.

“I felt differently when I was an art teacher for graphic design because I felt like it helped students to do some of their artwork,” Ms. Henry added.  “But in terms of English, I really love it. It helps the kids to focus a lot more.”

As a parent, Ms. Henry would like her children to have access to their phones, but realizes it does more harm than good in the classroom.

“I would want my children to have access to a cell phone but the reality of it is nine times out of ten, cell phones are being used for really terrible things in a school,” Ms. Henry added. “And it is immediate, impulsive behavior to things like social media, where pictures are being taken or videos are being taken and I think that they should not be allowed.”

During class time, many students at Francis Lewis ask to use the restroom, but instead roam the hallways while using their phones. Dr. Marmor changed the policy during the fall semester so students were not permitted to use their device after the second bell rings. Deans are therefore allowed to confiscate a phone when a student uses it in the middle of the period while using the bathroom pass.

“I think that this is a policy change that I support because as a dean I do see many students using the pass to use their phones and walk around the school, just so they can use their phones instead of going straight to the bathroom and back to class,” Ms. Antolos said.

Although administration is eliminating the use of phones in the classroom, the school has also been able to successfully provide new school issued technology for the students so they can still use technology during a class period.

“So we bought already this year, since September, we bought over 700 new Chromebooks,” Dr. Marmor said.  “Those 700 Chromebooks are put into carts 34 at a time. That’s 20 classrooms filled with Chromebooks. So the goal, which isn’t going to happen tomorrow, but the goal is that every single room has a full set of technology in the room for you to use.  If the teacher wants to do Pear Deck or wants to do something good, you can use the Chromebook instead of using your phone.”

Other schools in the district have a no cell phone policy, but they do not take the students’ phones away, according to Dr. Marmor. Here at Francis Lewis, if a dean see a student’s phone, they will take it away.

“We’re Francis Lewis and we are different than everywhere else,” Dr. Marmor said.  “If we wanted to be as unsuccessful as everybody else, well then we would do things the way they do it. Okay? But we’re not. For at least the last eight years, including this year, we’re the highest ranked community school in the city, number one.”