As Francis Lewis tightened our newly added cell phone policy, students and teachers alike have to navigate throughout school with the new conditions now sparking mixed feelings on how our future may be and how it will unfold. The new condition indicates that students are not allowed to have phones out after the late bell has rung and the next class period begins. Additionally, students are no longer able to use phones in the bathrooms on any bathroom break taken during that class time. Originally instituted due to overlapping occurrences of students being extremely late to class due, the new condition aims to decrease students wandering in halls to be on their phones, skipping class, or even hiding in the bathrooms for the purpose of using their phones. This was all observed from the short time that the school year started to November 18th, when the new condition was put in place. 

“I feel like this is a dumb rule that they made and that we should have our phones allowed.” said Bryan Perez, a freshman here at Francis Lewis. “I don’t think it helps students. It may help teachers because now students will be able to focus a bit more, but at the same time, students are still going to sneak around and still use their phone.” 

Many students share the same opinion as Perez as the phone restrictions often cause some misunderstandings such as students wanting to take a photo because they can’t take notes very fast or simply checking the time. However, teachers view the cell phone policy as something beneficial and actually aiding in students’ communication and interactive skills. With the cell phone policy as a backup, teachers can make the students focus and engage more in class activities prior to past years when the phone policy only consisted of teachers telling the students to put away their phone or holding on to it till the end of class.  

“They don’t realize it sometimes, but just in the classroom, students are more engaged. They’re interacting with one another,” says Ms. Silva, an English teacher and dean of Francis Lewis High school. “When the courtyard is open, you could see kids actually playing with one another and interacting in the library, where before all you saw was people with their faces on their phones.” 

Although Ms. Silva and staff’s primary concern was the development of social skills for every student, this new restriction in the hallways now affects the way students carry themselves around the school. Students weren’t always as disagreeing towards this policy before, as the original inputted cell phone policy only restricted phones from being seen in classrooms, which even then seemed to cause some issues for students with the severity of the rule. 

“It’s not really helpful because kids still use their phones and I feel like it’s just more restricting on kids’ freedoms in the school,” said junior Irene Park .“Our school is the only one who has these strict cell phone policies and other schools don’t, and yet they still do better than our school in certain aspects. So I feel like in a way it helps, but at the same time it’s not as efficient as everyone thinks it is.”

Students seem to feel like the hallway is too far of an extent of the rules as students can’t use their phones in class already. Since students like to use them in the hallways to send a quick message or just check the time, students are becoming more and more indifferent as the policy continues to stretch from the classroom to the hallways and even the bathroom. With the random visits in the bathroom, students now claim it to be an invasion of privacy due to its untimely nature and especially when its adults conducting visits to restrooms. 

“I just like being able to go on my phone in the hallways without getting yelled at. It’s not like I’m using it during class,” expressed Park. “Like I, for one, know that I shouldn’t use it, so I don’t. But I feel like just deans walking into the bathroom and taking your phones and all that, it’s just kind of absurd.” 

“To be honest, I feel like it’s not a good idea because there’s minors who’re using the bathrooms in there and what if something’s happening, why are they going in?” exclaimed Perez. They need to have privacy.”

As Park and Perez share their same interest by going against the new phone policy, some have even gone to the extent of starting a petition to remove it. As the petition signatures rose, so did Dr. Marmor’s attention towards the acknowledgement of the petition which has received a  whopping 862 signatures  of kids wanting to take this new rule down.

“I had a bunch of kids come to me and say, ‘Hey, are you aware that there’s a petition?’, and I’m like, ‘no’,” explains Dr. Marmor. “If they give the petition, I’ll throw it in the garbage.” Dr.Marmor adds on. 

Even though many students are unhappy and angry with this new policy, Dr. Marmor goes on to declare that it was not made to harm the student’s, rather it was in their best interest.

“I hope none of you think that your principal would make a decision like that without thinking about it very carefully,” Dr. Marmor said. “So for me to have made that decision means that I wrestled with that decision for a long time, my job is not to do what’s in my best interest, my job or what’s easy. My job is to do what’s in your best interest.”