Copper Hills High School teacher Andrea Hinojosa is tired of being the cellphone police in her classroom.

“Honestly, the number one thing I say in my classroom every class period is, ‘Please put your phone away,’” she said this summer. “I have tried everything over the years to eliminate the distraction as much as possible without taking phones away. I think that just them having it in their possession, the ability to go to it if they get bored or get a notification, takes their attention away and makes them less likely to discuss, collaborate, and engage.”  

While many teachers like Hinojosa have chosen to pick the battle over phones in the classroom, others allow students to have their phones, and even use cellphone time as incentive. Jordan School District’s Board of Education members admit the current cellphone policy (currently just a few sentences in the Student Conduct, Dress, and Appearance policy) is vague, inconsistently enforced and ineffective, which leaves many teachers unsure of how to address the problem.

“We need a comprehensive, rigorous policy from the school board that applies to all levels and takes the burden of enforcement off of the teachers,” Hinojosa said. “Anything less will still create a situation where teachers are enforcing the policy in different ways, so really, nothing gets solved. We need the school board to act, and they need to act decisively and boldly, in support of their teachers and the well-being of the students.”

The board has been working for months to find solutions for the cellphone problem. In January, they authorized Lighthouse Research to conduct surveys and focus groups to gather feedback from stakeholders. Results showed 87% of parents, 70% of students and 91% of faculty members think cellphones should be restricted during class time; however, student support dropped to 37% when asked if they would support a restrictive policy, compared to 92% of faculty members and 75% of parents.

Administrators know buy-in from students will be a challenge, but they also expect pushback from parents, who have become used to being able to communicate with their children during the school day. However, there is significant support from community groups, such as Focus Beyond Phones and Smartphone Free Childhood, who are pushing for phone-free schools.

Survey results show 95% of parents, 99% of faculty, and 84% of students believe cellphones have negative consequences, including cyberbullying, fighting, isolation, mental health issues, cheating, and exposure to inappropriate content. Teachers’ top concern was distractions.

One educator said, “I feel like so much teaching time is lost because a student will zone out on a phone and then expect me to reteach what they missed.” 

Jordan Education Association President Janet Sanders said teachers are tired of fighting the phones.

“When you battle this battle in every single class, every single day, multiple times—it doesn't matter how engaging your lesson is, it doesn't matter what you're doing that day—you could be doing the most exciting thing there could be— but with that phone, the dopamine hit is there, it's just so hard to resist,” she said.

Hinojosa believes students don’t have the cognitive development necessary to self-regulate their cellphone use, as demonstrated in the problems digital devices have caused among youth in the past decade. West Hills Middle School Assistant Principal Tim Brooks said constantly reminding students to put phones away doesn’t work. He said 780 phones were confiscated last year when students ignored teachers’ requests and warnings to put them away.

Survey results and public feedback are clear on the problem with cellphones but not on the solution. One teacher expressed a common opinion, “A tiny part of me feels like both kids and parents are waiting for somebody to do something. I feel like the parents know that there's a problem. I think the kids know that there's a problem. And I think that they're kind of just waiting to see who's going to stop them.”

As other school districts are introducing cellphone restrictions, and local legislators are drafting a bill for statewide bans on cellphones in schools, Jordan District teachers and parents are demanding direction from the board.

Jordan’s board members have spent months exploring ideas, researching tools, speaking with constituents and searching their souls for solutions. In August, they committed to write a new district cellphone policy, with class time ban of cellphones during class time in middle and high schools, and an all day ban in elementary schools. These restrictions could go into effect as soon as this month.

The board will continue to explore the possibility of implementing a bell-to-bell ban for all students, although there are still mixed opinions among board and community members. Concerns include overreaching the board’s role, overriding family choice, and overburdening teachers.

 The board hopes several schools will volunteer to test the effectiveness of the various procedures, tools, and consequences they have been exploring, including expensive magnetically locking pouches and low-cost secure lockers that physically separate students from their phones.

Discussions on long-term solutions could continue for months. In the meantime, administrators and teachers have been coming up with their own solutions.

Mountain Ridge High School announced at the beginning of the school year that no cellphones will be allowed in class for both students and teachers. Some middle schools have had classroom cellphone bans for years with success and will continue until they receive other instructions.

Teachers are using a variety of ways to address phones in their classroom. Some use a system of verbal warnings and consequences policy, others require students to place the phones in plastic pockets or secure lockers when entering the classroom.

Many teachers have been reluctant to take students’ phones without the backing of a clear policy. However, now that support has been promised, more teachers are feeling more confident to establish restrictions.

Hinojosa started this school year more proactively than she ever has, requiring students to put phones and smart watches on airplane mode and place them in a bin. She said physically separating students from their devices has been surprisingly effective.

“I saw more of their faces and experienced more engagement today in my general ed classes than I have in a long time, and not once today did I have to stop instruction to ask a student to put their phone away,” she said on the first day of classes.