A new Missouri bill, Senate Bill 1481, was passed in the state legislature on Tuesday, May 13 and requires school districts to create policies by Tuesday, July 1, to restrict and ban cell phone usage throughout the school day, including during breaks between classes and at lunch. The bill is on its way to the governor, who will decide if it turns into a law or not.
Sophomore Principal Dr. Richard Regina said the new bill will make administrators revisit the current cell phone discipline practices that were enacted this school year.
“If this would be a state law, it would have to be more strictly enforced,” Dr. Regina said. “The first offense would probably be a detention, and then it would probably build like it does right now.”
Dr. Regina said the bill would eliminate the gray areas with the current MHS phone policy. For example, if an administrator were to see any student with a cell phone in the hallways, during lunch or even in the bathroom, the student would face consequences.
“I do think that it will make kids sneakier, but at the end of the day, we as administrators just have to try our best to call students out on it and enforce the policy,” Dr. Regina said.
Bryce Miller, hall monitor, has noticed that students have started spending more time in the bathroom and in the hallways as a chance to escape the new Tech Red Zone classrooms.
“When I’m in the hallways, I always see students texting or on FaceTime, and I just think, get to class, you know,” Miller said.
Miller said he doesn’t support this new bill because it would increase the amount of disciplinary action the administration would have to take.
“Even if kids end up finding ways around it, I still think that more students would find themselves in detention,” Miller said. “I just think the best compromise would be the current phone policy: phones are allowed during passing period and lunch and not during class time.”
When the bell for Ac Lab rings, Tanujha Manikandan, sophomore, tucks her phone into her backpack and decides to “lock-in.”
“I always try to hide my phone during class so that I don’t get distracted, and the new phone policy also helps,” Manikandan said.
However, Manikandan said the new phone bill is extreme.
“I get that teachers want students to stay focused on school work and all of that, but it definitely would get hard,” Manikandan said. “It would probably be the worst if I have to text my family if something happens or if I need a ride.”
Ed Scalf, science teacher, has noticed that a few students in his biology classes still use their phones during instruction time. He said the new bill could help counteract this.
“After kids come back from lunch or passing period, they get used to seeing their phones again, and just go back to using their phones in their classroom,” Scalf said. “This new bill would completely remove that and increase focus and attention.”
