A Cell Phone Policy That's Tough to Sell

By Tena Thau

Last year, B-CC’s new zero-tolerance approach to student cell phone use brought increased scrutiny to the county-wide policy that requires students to have their cell phones off and out of sight during the school day.  A year later, the school’s cell phone policy has remained intact; students caught using their cell phones will have their phones snatched away faster than they can text the acronym, “OMG.”

The basis behind the cell phone ban is fairly simple. Cell phone use during class distracts students from lessons and facilitates academic dishonesty.

In a letter Principal Lockard wrote in the B-CC Banter, she maintained that cell phones “[disrupt] instructional time,” adding that the ubiquitous devices “have no place in the classroom.” 

The principal made a good case for banning cell phones during class, but she did not explain why cell phones should be banned during lunch.  After all, cell phones cannot possibly disrupt classroom instruction during a time when no classes are in session.

In an interview with The Tattler, Principal Lockard pointed out that some students may be “taking tests” during lunch or “may be in [other] situations where [they] don’t need cell phones.”  That’s a good point;  many students use the lunch period to make up missed assignments, get help in subjects they may be struggling with, or participate in one of BCC’s many clubs.  But it seems as though Principal Lockard’s concerns could be remedied by simply banning lunchtime cell phone use in the classroom – not in the entire building. 

Of course, the cell phone ban is not Ms. Lockard’s own creation.  She is simply encouraging the strict enforcement of a county-wide policy mandated by MCPS.  However, B-CC’s unique lunch situation ought to warrant an exception to MCPS’s blanket ban.  At other schools where lunch coincides with class, it seems easy for lunchtime cell phone use to interfere with class instruction, whereas at B-CC, the entire student body is having lunch at the same time.

In addition to forbidding cell phone use in the school building, MCPS policy also bans cell phone use on all other school property.  Calling a friend from the front lawn, evidently, is a hazard to our hallowed lunchtime learning environment.

That’s the policy.  Compliments of Montgomery County’s public school bureaucracy.  But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to send that lunchtime text message in the cafeteria or make that quick phone call from the atrium, without worrying about your cell phone being taken away?

Unfortunately, the school’s stringent cell phone policy is not going to change anytime soon.   For now, we all must continue to endure that tantalizing feeling you get when your phone starts vibrating, millimeters from your skin, one, two, three times -  a whole world of possibility literally at your finger tips as your hand instinctively reaches for your jacket  pocket –four, five – you can hear your heart beating now, clashing cacophonously with the steady buzzing of your phone – but at the apex of your anticipation, you come crashing down to earth, remembering that darn MCPS policy that keeps your phone so close but yet so far away.