Students at Washoe County School District Schools will no longer be able to have their phones out during class time.
The "Phone Away, Learn Today" pilot program kicked off on Monday.
The Washoe County School District decided to adopt this plan in hopes to decrease cell phone use during instructional time within schools.
What they want is students engaged during their time learning.
Kris Hackbuch, the Associate Chief with the Washoe County School District says, "We want to increase student outcomes, we want students interacting with each other in positive ways and so all of these goals are what we're hoping to achieve."
The Washoe County School District says they've done a lot of research and have asked the community for their input so they could come up with a solution that was balanced and fair.
Throughout this pilot program they will take the data and see what adjustments they need to make in the future going into next year.
Hackbuch mentions, "It's again something the school districts, schools are grappling with and everybody's taking a little different approach to it and so we hope to have a unique perspective by the end of it."
We also asked the students what they think of this new policy.
Peyton Nuyra, one student we spoke to says, "It hasn't really affected me because I don't really use my phone during school."
However he also tells us, "As a 6th grader, I don’t really think it affects us much because that was standard protocol before like, the ban of cell phones in the district - but I feel like fore 7th and 8th graders, they’re not happy about it.”
Another student, Lillian Lauderdale says, "If they don't have their phones, they pay more attention."
She adds, “If you get caught with your phone, the teachers take it and they put a sticky note on it and take it down to the office and you pick it up at the end of the day.”
And then tells us, “If we could use our phones at lunch that’d be fun, because I like to text my friends and to see where they are, but also I don’t think you should use them in your class either.”
One other student we spoke to, Kaydence Hitt explains, "The positives are that the teachers can teach, but the negatives are if there was an emergency then the kids would need to call their parents."
The district says their perspective in this pilot program is unique because they're not banning cell phones entirely.
Hackbuch says, "What we're doing is, we're really focusing on the time in the classroom where students are away from their phones using their phones casually, being more focused and engaged, maybe decreasing cyber bullying; but we also brought in student voice into this pilot policy that we've created and we've really tried to listen."
They also say every teacher can implement the no cell phone rule in their own way.
Hackbuch explains, "We're trying to get the message that this isn't being done to you it's being done with you and for you."
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