Pending a vote of the District 87 school board next month, Bloomington High School will allow students to access their phones only at the start and end of each school day, and during lunch.
Bloomington High School Principal Tim Moore said many students have been struggling since the COVID pandemic and haven't fully recovered academically. He said cell phone use is partly to blame.
“We’ve got teachers that would tell you they’ve got students that will come in and say, ‘I’m not going to work today,’ and they’ll just sit on their phones the entire class period,” Moore said in an interview on WGLT's Sound Ideas.
Moore said smartphones are not only a distraction from school work, but they have often fueled more aggressive behavior among students.
“Cell phones have absolutely contributed to physical altercations, probably some other instances of bullying. They have absolutely just created issues for our students.
“Because they are literally on their phones all the time,” Moore said.
The ban would also disallow the use of cell phones at the end of a class period, even as a reward for good behavior.
“That’s not an educational reason to use your cell phones,” Moore said.
Moore said the district is communicating with parents that they can call the school in the event of an emergency and school staff will get a message to the student if needed.
Students would get their phones taken on the first offense. Repeat offenders may have to turn the phone into the front office each day.
Students at Bloomington Junior High are already required to keep their phones in their locker at school. Moore said he hopes that will make the transition for high school students easier.
The Unit 5 school board raised the idea of a cell phone ban last year but has taken no action. Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed a ban during any classroom instruction.
Moore said BHS wanted to get ahead of any action that the state might take.
Bloomington High students also won't be allowed to wear headphones during the school day either.
“If you come in our hallways right now, there’s kids… they can’t hear anything going on once they got headphones on with music playing,” Moore said.
Smartwatches, which can also be used to give and receive electronic messages, will still be allowed.
“These teenagers are pretty savvy and pretty smart. There’s probably ways they can get around this. We’re just going to do out best to enforce it consistently throughout the school,” he said.
