For Silver Creek Middle School Principal Tiffany Awkard, managing student cellphone use during the prior school year was a “nightmare.” From cyberbullying to online conflicts turning into physical fights, the Kensington school’s policy of allowing cell phone use during lunch resulted in students creating conflict or being distracted.
“It was a battle,” Awkard said Monday. “We’re competing against social media … they’re winning the game here.”
But Awkard has noticed a change this school year as Silver Creek banned cell phone use for the entire school day, joining eight other Montgomery County public schools as participants in an “Away All Day” pilot program, which prohibits cell phone use during instructional time. According to some students and staff at Silver Creek and Rockville High School (another participating school), the program has been a success.
Bethesda Today joined county school board President Julie Yang as she visited Silver Creek and Rockville High this week to observe the pilot program in action and to hear feedback from students, teachers and administrators.
Yang’s big takeaway?
“It’s more complex than I thought it would be,” Yang told Bethesda Today after talking with students and staff. “The message is clear: Students and teachers said it made a difference in behavior, instruction.”
Yang’s visit comes ahead of the board’s plans to discuss possible changes to the district’s cell phone policies at its Feb. 20 meeting and amid efforts by some state lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly to force school districts to implement restrictive cell phone use policies.
The cell phone restriction pilot
Since at least last summer, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) staff have been evaluating the district’s cell phone use policy. Meanwhile, the eight middle schools and Rockville High are participating in the pilot program that began this school year.
According to current MCPS regulations, elementary school students have the least amount of leeway when it comes to cell phone use while high schoolers have the most.
Elementary school students can only use phones before and after the school day. Middle schoolers can use them before and after the school day, and during instructional time if teachers allow. Cell phone use for middle schoolers during lunch time is up to a school’s principal.
High schoolers can use phones before and after school and while at lunch, during instructional time if teachers allow, and between classes if principals allow. Under the current policy, individual middle and high schools and even classrooms can have varying rules on what’s permitted.
The schools participating in the pilot program agreed to some exceptions regarding cell phone use during instructional time, allowing students to use or access their cell phones when needed for health reasons, such as monitoring insulin levels, or for other accommodations, according to MCPS. Principals have discretion on phone use outside of instructional time, such as during lunch and between classes.
For Silver Creek, participating in the pilot program means prohibiting cell phone use during the school day. And the consequences for students who use their cell phones are swift and consistent, Awkard said.
For a first offense, according to the policy, the student’s phone is taken by a staff member and delivered to the front office. A student whose phone is confiscated can pick it up before leaving at the end of the school day. The student’s parents are also called and informed that the phone was confiscated.
If the student is caught a second time, the cell phone is taken to the main office and the student’s parent or guardian must pick up the phone from the school.
For a third offense, the student is referred to the main office and receives consequences based on the student code of conduct, staff take the phone and keep it until a parent meeting is scheduled and a plan for cell phone use is established for the rest of the year.
Awkard said she knew the policy needed to be “drastic” and consistent or else students wouldn’t take it seriously. The administration initially was looking into collecting phones at the beginning of the school day, but ultimately decided it was easier and just as effective to strictly and consistently apply the consequences, Awkard said.
At Rockville High, the cell phone use policy is more lenient, in part due to the additional responsibilities and freedoms that high schoolers have, Principal Rhoshanda Pyles said. Pyles said her goal is to teach her students to be responsible as they head to college and into the workforce.
Rockville High students can use their phones in between classes and during lunch, according to the school’s “bell-to-bell, no cell” policy. Students caught using their phones in class for the first time get a warning. The second time a student is caught, the phone is stored in a magnetic sealable pouch for the rest of the school day that the students keep with them.
Additional offenses automatically lead to the student’s phone removal and placement in the locked pouch. Additionally, for the fourth offense, parents are contacted. For the fifth offense, students are also referred to administration for potential further consequences.
Awkard said she and her team had been discussing the implementation of stricter cell phone rules prior to joining the pilot program after it was announced. Awkard said she also knew she needed parent support, so she turned to the school’s PTSA, which she said was “100% on board.”
A majority of parents who responded to a school survey supported restricting phone use during the entire school day. Parents mostly were concerned about getting in contact with their children in case of an emergency, she said.
All Silver Creek classrooms have phones, so students could be reached if parents call the main office. And Awkard noted the presence of cell phones could be dangerous during lockdowns if the phones make noise or light up when receiving calls.
Still, Rockville High’s Pyles said there are lingering concerns about restricting use at the high school level. With President Donald Trump’s vow to conduct mass deportations, some immigrant students are worried about not having their phones in case something happens to their families.
School community feedback
At Silver Creek, participation in the cell phone pilot has produced “huge benefits,” resulting in less cyberbullying and distractions, according to Awkard, students and teachers who spoke to Yang during this week’s visit. While students initially pushed back on the policy at the beginning of the school year, many have grown accustomed to the rules, Awkard said.
A group of roughly 15 teachers told Yang they were “very satisfied” with the pilot, noting that keeping cell phone away had increased students’ focus and as well their level of engagement and social interactions with each other.
Trayce Diskin, a media specialist at Silver Creek, said she’s confiscated just one phone from a student in the library, and the pilot program helped lessen negative interactions between students and teachers about cell phones.
Many of the teachers said the school board should implement districtwide rules. World studies teacher Ryan Holloran said teachers at other schools are often excited and envious when he tells them Silver Creek is participating in the pilot.
A group of about six Silver Creek students also told Yang the pilot has been successful for the most part. The group of sixth, seventh and eighth graders said that using cell phones would previously cause fights and distractions to occur, but as one noted, students are now “present in the moment, absorbing information.”
But students still go to the restrooms so they can use their phones, the group said, and there’s a real “fear of missing out” among students when they can’t use them.
One seventh grader noted that some teachers are unnecessarily harsh about implementing the policy, sharing that her friend got in trouble just for having her cell phone in her pocket. And an eighth grader said phones of offending students should be confiscated for just a class period and not the entire day. But the group agreed that the restrictions have changed their level of cell phone use in school.
Cecily Baskir, president of the Silver Creek PTSA, told Bethesda Today that the PTSA was supportive of Awkard’s move toward a stricter cell phone policy. Since the pilot has been in place, Baskir said she’s “only heard positive things from parents.”
“People are just constantly thanking her for this new policy and saying what a difference it’s made for their children,” Baskir said. “Lunch times especially have improved because you don’t have a lot of kids on their phones, and then other kids feeling left out because they don’t have phones … instead they are talking.”
Baskir said the PTSA has been “pleasantly surprised” that the policy has worked so well even without the use of resources such as magnetic pouches for storing cell phones.
“Judging from how things have worked at Silver Creek, having a policy like this across the board … at elementary and middle school levels would be great,” Baskir said, noting that the pilot program is successful because of Awkard’s commitment. “If MCPS did have this policy across the board at middle schools, I think it would also be very important to have the leadership of all of those schools buy into it.”
Ultimately, Awkard said the cell phone restrictions will have the most impact with consistent implementation along with support from the school community.
“A policy is only as good as the implementation,” she said.
A group of 15 Rockville High students offered a different perspective when Yang met with them. The majority said less than half of their teachers strictly enforce the cell phone restriction rules. That means students know how often they can use their phones will depend on who’s teaching their class, they said.
When asked, the students adamantly said they wouldn’t support a policy that would restrict cell phone use the entire school day.
Senior Bella Vilchez argued that restricting cell phone use during lunch was taking away the only opportunity for freedom students had during the school day. And, she argued, the policy didn’t teach students responsibility if they were not using their phones just out of fear of possible consequences.
The high school students mentioned plenty of reasons why they need their phones, such as coordinating with friends for lunch, communicating with parents about extracurricular activities or even accessing electronic payment systems for school vending machines.
One student noted, however, that filling those needs during school only takes up about 10% of her phone usage in school. Now with the pilot, many said they’ve noticed they and their peers use their phones less frequently in class.
A group of five Rockville teachers who met with Yang noted students have grown used to the policy after initially resisting. Students have been on their phones less and the teachers have found they don’t need to spend as much time reminding them not to use them.
The lockable pouches are a useful tool when students are caught using their phones, the teachers said, because they don’t want to be liable for having possession of a student’s phone. Offending students can carry their phones inside the pouch.
Pyles said staff have seen fewer cyberbullying infractions among students, and the first fight of the school year occurred in early February.
While most of the teachers said they were very satisfied with the pilot, social studies teacher Brad Goldberg said he wanted to see phones banned for the entire day – even if it takes a few years to implement a full ban so students can acclimate.
He noted some students have found a way to skirt the rules by using wireless earphones in class, since the small Bluetooth earphones are easy to hide. Students have also begun buying magnets to unlock their phones from the pouches, Pyles said.
Pyles said a districtwide policy supported by MCPS administration would help implementation of the phone restrictions because there would be less variation throughout county schools.
What’s next?
As the county school board prepares to discuss cell phone polices later this month, restricting cell phone use in schools has become a hot topic during this year’s Maryland General Assembly session, which began Jan. 11.
Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo (D-Dist. 15), who represents parts of Montgomery County, introduced a bill to require school districts to develop a policy to limit the use of cell phones during instructional time, according to Maryland Matters. The bill also would require students to store their phones in a “secure place” that could include a locker, closed backpack or storage device.
Del. Nino Mangione (R-Baltimore County) also introduced a bill that would ban phone use in schools, aside from lunchtime for high schoolers. The bill would prohibit elementary and middle school students from using their phones during the school day, according to Maryland Matters.
The bills are in the beginning stages of the legislative process and many are awaiting hearings.
