{"id":26510,"date":"2024-07-24T15:15:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T15:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-to-start-new-cellphone-policy-this-fall\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:40:59","slug":"montezuma-cortez-high-school-to-start-new-cellphone-policy-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-to-start-new-cellphone-policy-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez High School to start new cellphone policy this fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cellphones
Cellphones have negative impacts on students\u2019 health and well-being. (Unsplash)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez High School will start a new cellphone policy this fall in an effort to protect student mental health, encourage classroom focus and lessen the effects of cyberbullying.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur school struggles with being low on the test score scale. We have really bright students, but they\u2019re super-distracted with their phones, and it\u2019s hard for teachers to compete with that,\u201d Principal Jennifer Boniface told The<\/em> Journal<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s just a constant losing battle when kids have their phones out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under previous restrictions, students could use phones on breaks, but they continued to use them in class as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just didn\u2019t work,\u201d Boniface said. \u201cThere was this constant going against the rules, and teachers would get frustrated.<\/p>\n

The new policy will prohibit cellphones from being out of the students\u2019 backpack in classrooms, bathrooms and hallways. Students may access their phones at lunchtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teachers are pretty engaging, but we\u2019re never going to be as engaging as a cellphone that changes screens, lights and sounds and music,\u201d Boniface said.<\/p>\n

Boniface said she and Assistant Principal Erin Schmitt have been researching the impact of cellphones on students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is to help the students be able to focus on the lesson and be able to really engage with the learning and also be talking to each other, socializing, having discussions in the class instead of, \u2018Oh, look what\u2019s on my social media,\u2019\u201d Boniface said.<\/p>\n

Drew Pearson, Cortez Middle School principal, said the middle school\u2019s cellphone policy has had positive effects. The policy has been in place for about three years.<\/p>\n

MCMS students are not permitted to use their phones during the school day, and phones muse be turned off and in their backpack at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed it and just went with a wholesale, no cellphones policy from beginning to end,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cIf you see a cellphone during the day, we have parents come and pick it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the results have been worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact was tremendous,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cWe saw a lot of our behavioral issues and fights go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Pearson said other policies implemented during that time might have helped, the cellphone policy was a big part of it.<\/p>\n

Bullying decreased, and student relationships improved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw kids at lunch talking to each other, and we saw kids at recess going out and playing, playing sports and stuff,\u201d Pearson said.<\/p>\n

Some parents initially were concerned about how to contact their children during an emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a phone in every single classroom, and the students all have wonderful Chromebook devices with email, it\u2019s just a lot more regulated,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cMost parents are honestly very supportive. Even with the confiscation, they\u2019ve been overall generally supportive. It\u2019s honestly been very beneficial to the school. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charts
Charts show the negative impacts of cellphones and social media on youths since their popularity spike and founding in 2010.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charts
Charts show the negative impacts of cellphones and social media on youths since their popularity spike and founding in 2010.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After the founding of Instagram in 2010, suicide rates of adolescents climbed dramatically, and emergency room visits for self-harm increased, especially among young girls, according to The<\/em> Economist<\/em> and The<\/em> New<\/em> York<\/em> Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Depression rates soared, and more students reporting increased levels of loneliness despite the constant connectivity of social media and the activities of others.<\/p>\n

Teenagers check their phone an average of 489<\/a> times per day, with many using their phones the equivalent<\/a> of a 40-hour workweek. Many screen time counts reach up to 16 or more hours per day.<\/p>\n

\"The
The percentage of U.S. teens who had a major depression in the past year.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cellphones
Cellphones have negative impacts on students\u2019 health and well-being. (Unsplash)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fox News reported<\/a> in 2023 that 97% of students use their phones at school, and 60% are on their phones almost all night, even on school nights.<\/p>\n

The impact on schools was immense. Schools saw an alarming growth in cyberbullying and a decrease in student focus and attention spans. Nearly 90% of high school students reported experiencing cyberbullying via phones while at school.<\/p>\n

Boniface said this issue is being seen at MCHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a bigger prevalence in bullying, the sexting with kids, taking pictures of each other going to the bathroom and blasting them on social media,\u201d Boniface said. \u201cThey\u2019re taking pictures of teachers and editing them. We had a bunch of students putting faces on naked bodies and pretending it\u2019s really that person. It\u2019s getting uglier and uglier, and that\u2019s what kids are focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students can\u2019t focus on their classes when they\u2019re worried about someone taking a photo of them going to the bathroom, Boniface said.<\/p>\n

Bullies can hide behind a cellphone screen to induce fear and embarrassment onto their victims, making them harder to track and hold accountable.<\/p>\n

Anxiety-related issues in students have also skyrocketed since the introduction of phones and social media apps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a true addiction,\u201d Boniface said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to work with them and really help them through it. We really need to count on parents\u2019 support and students to just give us a chance and try it out and be present for their learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearson echoed Boniface\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids have this tremendous addiction to cellphones, screen time, all the different social media pieces and all the negative impacts of that,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve even had kids on numerous occasions say, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s actually really nice not to have to worry about these things at school and not have to worry about like on Instagram,\u2019 or have a peer taking pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help combat the concerning new trends, many schools have begun implementing \u201cnonacademic\u201d bans on cellphones. States including Florida have enacted legislation to keep cellphones out of the classroom.<\/p>\n

Schools have reported a decrease in student anxiety and bullying and an increase in camaraderie and focus.<\/p>\n

To Boniface, this will make the initial challenges worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an overnight thing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt might be a struggle, there\u2019s some growing pains, but there needs to be teamwork. When other schools are going on the same path and finding success, it just seems the right way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

has seen positive results from its cellphone policy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,147,155,28,60,36,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79380,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26510\/revisions\/79380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26510"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}