On October 6th, 2025, FLHS implemented its bell-to-bell phone ban to raving reviews. In fact, an astounding 14% of the 600 students, faculty, and parents polled were in total agreement with the policy upon its announcement. “I was a huge fan of the one month’s notice,” said one parent. “It was incredibly thoughtful of the district to suddenly announce the phone ban with the release of schedules. Our students would have been stressed out if they were given more forewarning!”
Students affected by the ban were extremely vocal about their support of it. One student commented, “I completely understand the rationale behind this ban. We as students are entirely too reliant on being in constant contact with our parents, so having to use email during class time instead of texting during passing periods really supports our independence in an effective manner.” Additionally, all students have had large boosts in their academic performances. The average weighted GPA has risen to 4.85 since the phone ban’s implementation, and 94% of the student body has maintained a summative average above 100 percent.
Teachers are also very supportive of the ban, describing the new responsibilities of constantly monitoring students’ technology and earbud usage as “exciting.”
“Our jobs are too easy,” said one teacher. “This new burden lets us focus on what really matters, rather than educating our students.” They added, “I’m also a huge fan of the expanded definition of insubordination. Having the potential to lose my job if I don’t enforce the new regulations really adds an extra layer of challenge to the whole thing.”
The new phone pouches have been a hit among the student population, with the magnetic locks reportedly being used by at least one student. These student(s) have/has declared that they’re huge fans of locking up their phone(s). “It just really seals the deal, you know?” one student stated when asked why they didn’t just keep their phone in their backpack during the school day. Some have noted the inspirational shade of blue and how it invokes school spirit—citing the pouches as potential makeshift flags for football games—while others have expressed their disappointment in the lack of hallway clusters around the magnets at dismissal. “Is nobody even using the pouches?” one student—potentially the same one from before—asked.
It’s clear that this phone ban has drastically changed the student culture. Student selfie taking has dropped dramatically, as the ban has encouraged students to interact with their fellow students more through a new technique known as the “Chromebook selfie.” The cafeteria has also gotten 0.1% louder, indicating a positive correlation between the policy and student conversation. “I feel significantly less depressed,” said one student. “Now that my daily screen time is down by, like, 5 minutes, I’ve started to enjoy my life so much more.” This may recontextualize the loud grumbling heard when Dr. Hatzis implied that there was a correlation between phone usage and mental health as murmurs of agreement rather than dissent.
Overall, it’s clear that this policy has proven itself to be completely effective at increasing student mental health and productivity, and the student body looks forward to all future policy changes.
