School officials say cell phone policy is working

Carson City students have found entertainment at school without their cell phones: they’re line dancing, playing cards at lunch and reengaging in their classrooms.

On Tuesday at Carson High School, students and staff members discussed the cell phone guidelines implemented at the beginning of the school year. Phones are secured in Yondr pouches at the beginning of the day, stored in student backpacks and unlocked at stations, available in every classroom and common school areas, at the end of the day.

Principals Lee Conley and Amy Robinson of Eagle Valley Middle School and Carson Middle School report both sites have seen few phone violations.

“This wasn’t a huge change for us just because in the years past, we always said, ‘Your phones aren’t allowed to be out of your backpack,’” Conley said. “But I do think it has taken away the temptation for kids to take them out of their backpacks and use them.”

It also hasn’t prevented Eagle Valley’s classrooms from using their phones as a learning tool, he added.

“If they have a reason that they're going to need the kids to use their phone… the teachers can all unlock them,” Conley said. “But then as soon as they're done with that, they put them right back in and the teachers make sure they're locked up.”

Robinson said she has seen an improvement at Carson Middle School, also.

“There’s more excitement about school, more kind of back to how it was … pre-COVID, but the kids are excited about being in school or parents are excited about their kids being there and they're wearing their spirit wear,” she said.

Conley and Robinson said for the most part, parents generally have accepted the change.

“I mean, emergencies and things happen, but if the kids will ask, by all means we're going to support them on stuff like that, or a teacher can say, ‘Hey, do you need to call your mom, let's call them from my office, or for my classroom, you know?” Conley said.

Carson High honors chemistry teacher Ty McMillen said he is encouraged by the increased engagement of students.

“We got to a point as teachers where we stopped even telling them to put their phones away, right, because it was so common,” he said. “It’s so nice.”

McMillen said there’s no downtime during classtime without access to the students’ phones. He’s also noticed there are fewer students sitting alone in hallways before or between classes and having conversations with each other.

“They’re self-managing and they’re just keeping it away, so as long as we don’t see it out during the day, there’s no problem and then at the end of the day, it goes really fast (to unlock the pouches),” he said. “So we’re using Yondr in a lot of different ways. We’re Yondring, un-Yondring or de-Yondring and make sure you’re ‘Yondr’d,’ right? It’s a great new vocabulary.”

Carson High senior Eleanor Romeo, a member of the student council, said she received a sneak peek at the pouches before they officially were implemented so they weren’t a surprise.

“I guess the measures that the school was taking weren’t enough for the phone problem because I do think it was a problem before the phones,” she said. “They were a distraction in class.”

Carson City School Board President Joe Cacioppo, who also was at Carson High on Tuesday, said he appreciated hearing the diversity of opinion from students on the issue. Cacioppo, who has served on the board for 12 years, said he would be curious to see how effective the policy proves by the data when it becomes available.

“I can talk to the superintendent, the principals and they have valuable perspectives,” he said. “I always like to find out, OK, what's happening in an individual classroom, you're here every day. How is this working for you? And the teachers will tell you how they feel, the students will tell you how they feel. Some of the students will tell you anything, but they are usually honest, and if you sit down and talk to them, they have something to say and they have some good input.”