The Author Gets His First Phone
It was the year 2009 and it was my first day of 7th grade. It was time to be excited, time to be nervous, and time to grow up. Before I could leave and go off to school, my mother told me to meet her in the kitchen. There was a rectangular box in the center of the table. It was cute, small, and wrapped up with a platinum metallic gift wrap.
“I have a gift for you, Shaud. I know you’re getting older and I thought you might be needing this on your first day,” my mom said.
I unwrapped the plastic around the box, and read the letters C-R-I-C-K-E-T. I opened the box and there it was: my very first cell phone.
I thanked my mom, grabbed my new phone, and went on my way.
My friend Darielle and I always went to school together. She had long black hair that she let you know she paid for, every color track suit by Beyonce and Kimora Lee Simmons’ fashion line, and she had a cell phone. Darielle would text in class, make calls, and play those games that were installed on phones long before there was such a thing as an App.
She would always give me crap for not having a phone. “When are you going to get a phone? I feel like by the time you get one it’ll be like 2020 or something,” she said. When she arrived at my house that morning, I had the brand new phone in my hand. She screamed.
But when we got to school, posters on the bulletin board showcased a cell phone with a red slash through it. “No phones in school” was the message.
Cell Phone Policy Evolves in Wauwatosa
In the years since I went to middle school with my first phone, school cell policies have changed radically. Rules range from banning phones, to allowing limited use, to allowing full access anytime while in class. At Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, administrators have become more liberal, allowing students to use their cell phones on school grounds.
Administrators and Teachers
Superintendent Phil Ertl supports a more liberal cell phone policy. 
Seventh grade history teacher Ginny Klastinski does not approve of the new policy. 
Whitman Principal Clint Grochowski checks upcoming agendas and emails. 
Seventh grade science teacher Nancy Duff writes on the front white board at the start of class.
Wauwatosa Superintendent Phil Ertl is the man behind the new policy in the Wauwatosa School District. Ertl says the policy is a departure from the district’s earlier guidelines, which sought to restrict cell phone usage during school hours. In a 2016 rule change, the district informed parents that their children would be “prohibited from using or displaying cell phones in plain sight during the school day.” Students could have their phones confiscated and “appropriate disciplinary consequences will be assigned to students who fail to comply with the new policy.”
Ertl says the novelty of cell phones eight or nine years ago made them too distracting for students.
“They just caused so much conflict we had to become restrictive and strict by not allowing them at all,” he said.
According to the Wauwatosa school district’s student handbook for the year 2017-2018, the use of cell phones and other electronic devices was prohibited during school hours, except in accordance with the Wauwatosa School District’s BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy. Otherwise, cell phones were not to be SEEN, USED or HEARD between the hours of 8:00am – 3:10 pm (2:10 pm on Wednesday).
The newly relaxed policy created by Ertl and members of the board, started in fall 2018 and is currently on a trial run.
Ertl says the new policies allow students to have limited access to their cell phones while they are on school grounds.
Now, students have the freedom to use their devices while they are in between periods, during lunch, and of course, recess. Teachers even let them use phones in class for educational purposes or to listen to music while they are doing in-class assignments.
They just caused so much conflict we had to become restrictive and strict by not allowing them at all
Wauwatosa School District Superintendent Phil Ertl
But while administrators support the more liberal rules, teachers say the phones are a constant distraction.
In the case study, Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity, researchers observed participants who turned off their phones while they performed memory tasks. Some kept their phones with them, and some had to leave them in the other room. Those who had the phone with them did significantly worse.
Many Whitman teachers believe the policy should have never have been made more liberal. Seventh grade science teacher Nancy Duff has been teaching at Whitman for 10 years and says allowing students to use their phones has really been a distraction.
“When they’re in the hallways, they tend to try and bring their phones into the classroom, then that’s kind of hard to get them to refocus on the aspect of school,” she said.
According to Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, from the year 2004 to 2009, 45 percent of teens had a cell phone. Since that time, mobile phone use has climbed among teens ages 12 to 17 to 63 percent in fall of 2006 and then to 71 percent in early 2008. Older teens are much more likely to own phones than younger teens, and the largest increase occurs at age 14, right at the transition between middle and high school. Among 12-13-year-olds, 52 percent had a cell phone in 2008. Mobile phone ownership jumped to 72 percent at age 14, and by the age of 17 more than eight in ten teens had their own cell phone.
Seventh grade social studies teacher Kristen Klestinski agrees that the new policy is a problem. She’s been at Whitman for 29 years and says cell phones are one reason students are late to class.
“Students don’t love the fact that they have one less minute of passing period,” Klestinski said. “Then when you throw in their phones, them telling their friends to hurry and look at their screens, then moving to the social media or whatever their doing, I feel like it’s not always a main priority to be getting where we need to be going,” she said.
However, both seventh grade teachers do have individual class rules. They both use Chromebooks when there is any a need for technology. If students need to call home, the teachers say they can go to the main office.
Film maker Lisa Tabb produced an award-winning movie called Screenagers, about the effect of cell phone use on kids. According to a survey she conducted for the film, 56 percent of middle schools allow students to carry their cell phones with them all day, but 82 percent of parents do not want their middle schoolers to be using phones at school.
The survey also found that some schools restrict phones during class time and allow teachers some discretion.
Middle School Students
Kristiana Nwaehibe and Pharra Chanmavong have been best friends since second grade. They both attend Whitman and like the new cell phone policy, but they concede that phones can be a distraction when they make it into the classrooms.
“Sometimes we do have to stop the class because people are on them so much and the teacher will just stop,” said Pharra.
Both in the eighth grade, Kristiana and Pharra enjoy the fact that they get to listen to music at recess and even catch up on some of their favorite shows while they eat lunch. They also use their phones to take notes and complete exercises in class.
Classmates giggle at an image on the screen. 
Nyema Moss and Pharra Chanmavong enjoy their lunch while using their mobile devices. 
Students use their phones and Chromebooks as they work on assignments during class. 
A student checks her Snapchat in class before the bell rings.
“When my teacher tells me to take a picture of an assignment that I have and send it to myself, I can actually send it to myself from my phone and it’ll be easier for me,” said Kristiana.
Other eighth graders like Nyema Moss and Chloe Garderner also like the idea of having their phones in class.
“In my first hour class I’ll take a picture of the screen before my teacher moves on, so that way I can look at it whenever I may need to,” Nyema said.
The Decision
Whitman’s new principal, Clint Grochowski, agrees with the more relaxed policy.
“I’d like to say that this policy is here to stay. I think it’s still a work in progress and we are still figuring out challenges that adolescent students have while having access to their phones,” said Grochowski.
Superintendent Ertl has received some backlash and debate from the school board but says giving students more responsibility to manage their phones in school opens a door to adulthood.