New Bedford High considers restricting cell phone use

NEW BEDFORD — When Elliott Talley is called down to the principal’s office, his pulse never quickens. Recently elected to his third year as student council president, Talley’s trips to the office are usually to consult on school rules rather than face their consequences.

So it was in April, as New Bedford High’s principal, Joyce Cardoza, was readying her presentation before the school board later that night. Cardoza wanted to speak with Talley about some of the proposals and updates in her slide deck, including a step she was considering toward restricting cell phone use — similar to a ban already in effect at Whaling City, the city’s alternative school.

As Talley left class, walked down the hall, passed the cafeteria and bathrooms, and neared the administrative wing, he could’ve looked around and seen the many, many cell phones that students and teachers were using during the school day. Though he’s normally a stickler for the rules, Talley recently said cell phones are so common that he wasn’t even sure what the policy was. He was surprised to learn that the handbook states that phones “must be turned off and not visible during the school day in all academic areas.”

“I see a lot of students on their phones in class and in the hallways,” he said. Teachers look at their phones regularly too, multiple students told The Light. Bright little screens shimmer in the hallways, the cafeteria, and in regular and AP classes alike (though Talley said the AP Chemistry students were usually phone-free and focused). One teacher even gave 10 minutes of “phone time” as a reward at the end of a lesson, Talley said.

Cardoza was considering a policy that could change all that. When she appeared in front of the School Committee on that night in April, she said, “We are exploring the idea of Yondr pouches and looking at how we might make the school environment more focused by not having cell phones online during classes.”

Yondr pouches are thick, rubbery bags that hold and lock away cell phones. Often used for concerts and performances where photography is prohibited, they allow people to keep their phones (so avoid the awkwardness and liability of seizing expensive tech) while ensuring the devices cannot be used.

In the last few years, schools have purchased so many of Yondr’s anti-phone kits that sales have “skyrocketed,” according to reporting from The 74. “The company has seen more than a tenfold increase in sales from government contracts, primarily with school districts — from $174,000 to $2.13 million,” in a two-year span from 2021 to 2023.

New Bedford could be the next district to sign up. “Hopefully [we are] going to pilot that this summer,” Cardoza told the School Committee in her April presentation. Cardoza did not respond to a request for an interview, but district superintendent Andrew O’Leary emailed The Light to say, “Yondr is an option we are strongly considering.” 

Talley, more than just Cardoza’s student, was part of her audience that night too; the high school junior sits on the School Committee as the student representative. (Students do not vote on School Committees, despite legislation that Talley helped advocate on Beacon Hill.) His reaction to the Yondr proposal: “It doesn’t make sense for us in our school.”

Talley’s skepticism is typical of most students — in New Bedford and also around the country and world — who often rail against proposed phone bans.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Av, a junior in New Bedford. “We should have a way to easily contact our parents without having to go through an adult.” Another junior, Ashmedai, said that losing access to phones requires students to put a lot of trust in the administration, but “I don’t trust them one bit.”

Despite student concerns, limiting phone use in school has huge and increasingly well-documented benefits. Students’ grades and rates of physical activity improve without smartphones, and tremendous mental health benefits follow reduced time on social media. A popular study from Norway found that bullying decreased when phones went away, and a U.S. study found college students performed better in school and had less anxiety when they curtailed phone use. In Massachusetts, some students have ended up thinking of phone bans positively — students at Salem High told WBUR that removing phones helped them focus. 

For Talley, who has worked on a range of school policy issues, the benefits for students are worth considering. “I’m totally fine looking at another phone policy,” he said. But ultimately, he hopes that administrators listen to students and consider a policy that is responsive to the reasons that students are actually using their phones.

“It’s a diverse school with diverse needs, and people need items for different reasons.” Talley pointed out that teens in New Bedford are disproportionately likely to work jobs to support their families or to shoulder caretaking responsibility at home, such as organizing after school pick-ups.

In the end, finding a policy that works is tantamount to “treating kids with more respect,” Talley said. He and several other students have argued that the strict technology rules at New Bedford High — which prevent sending external emails, accessing common educational websites, and conducting basic research — are evidence that administrators see technology as a way to constrain students, rather than enable their learning. 

Yet, there’s already phone-ban experiments happening in New Bedford.

No phones at Whaling City, Alma Del Mar, and many schools statewide

John Tweedie, the principal of Whaling City, has called his school “the safest place to experience academics” in New Bedford. His claim about the district’s alternative school reflects its evolution under his tenure.

Graduation rates have swelled from 22% in 2021 (the first graduation during Tweedie’s tenure) to over 70%. During that time class sizes have actually been increasing, too.

When students enter Whaling City, which is housed in the downtown administration building, they pass through metal detectors. These provide several safety reassurances, but Tweedie said there’s a main benefit: “No phones.”

Whaling City enforces a total cell phone ban. No one watches videos in the back of the class or sends a quick text at their locker. And Tweedie has attributed much of the students’ success to this policy. “They’re doing well academically just because this environment allows for it,” he said.

More than 40 students crossed the stage at Whaling City’s June 5 graduation, then wrapped themselves in their families’ cheering arms. It was an enormous milestone for students, many who came to the alternative school after their paths were interrupted, delayed or overlooked. Reflecting on their experience, many students echoed Tweedie’s sentiment that a caring, phone-free environment helped them reach this moment. 

“You pay attention more — 100%,” said Seth Lemos, who attributed his graduation to teachers, smaller class sizes, and fewer distractions from phones. “Teachers are amazing,” Lemos said, and restricting phones “made the kids less aggressive.” 

“It’s all because of the staff,” said Anderson Lima, another graduate. “They’re really into it, and there’s always someone there to help you.” About the phones, he said, “it’s not a big deal; you get used to it.”

A Whaling City teacher described the environment as “calmer” than in other district schools where she previously worked. Phones were the source of “95% of the issues” in some other schools, this teacher said. Previous reporting from The Light also found that social media was the source of an influx of student fights, with New Bedford High disciplining many more students for fighting than any other school in Massachusetts in 2022.

The teacher said that the security measures at Whaling City were clearly present to benefit the students, not to punish them. “They speak nicely to the children,” the teacher said about security staff and behavioral interventionists. “You think differently here.” The teacher asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal from administrators.

In May, Tweedie had welcomed a request to visit the school — “I am more than happy to meet and discuss the programmatic set up at Whaling City,” he said — but central office administrators stepped in to deny The Light’s request.

The benefits of cell phone restrictions have caught the attention of the Massachusetts board of education. Last year, then-Commissioner Jeff Riley announced an experimental grant to fund districts that wanted to implement some type of cell phone restriction. Over $1.2 million went to 77 districts (averaging about $16,000 per district) to limit phone use.

Alma del Mar was one of the districts to receive those funds. The New Bedford-based charter school used its $15,000 award to purchase storage cabinets and lockboxes to keep phones during the day. The school also funded workshops on how to prevent cyberbullying for families and staff.  

According to surveys that Alma del Mar administrators conducted, only 3% of middle schoolers rated the new cell phone policy negatively. 

“Cell phone use has never been allowed during the school day,” said Becca Kurie, director of development at Alma del Mar. The new storage policy, she said, will “strengthen how we ensure [students] do not use or get distracted by cell phones and other electronic devices during the school day.” 

Elsewhere, district-wide initiatives have been turning to the increasingly popular Yondr pouches, including schools in Chicopee, Holyoke and Salem.

Holyoke’s superintendent, Anthony Soto, said there has been “more student engagement and less heads buried in phones” since his district started using Yondr pouches.

“We already have a policy of no cell use,” Soto told Western Mass News, “so this isn’t a new policy, it’s a tool that we’re using to support implementing the policy.” The overall reaction has been positive, according to Soto, who said “the feedback has been unbelievable.”

But reactions aren’t universally glowing. After Swampscott High School got Yondr pouches, many students were upset. Some started emailing Ela Gardiner to see what she could do about it.

Gardiner, a student at Wellesley High School, represents all students in Massachusetts as a voting member of the statewide board of education. In this role, she gets to work on policies that affect students across the commonwealth. The board has not taken an official position on phone restrictions, but the Swampscott students wanted Gardiner to know that the $20,000 grant they received for Yondr pouches was not a welcome development.

“There’s a lot of science to say that a distraction-free environment helps to maximize learning,” Gardiner told The Light. “And of course we want to maximize learning.” But Gardiner is not convinced that taking away students’ phones — or locking them in rubbery pouches — is the best path forward.

Gardiner said she knows diabetic students who use their phones to monitor blood glucose levels. Some students perform translations for their newly-arrived parents over text. What’s more, Gardiner said she doesn’t actually see much wrong with students browsing the internet during lunch or other free time during the day.

“We’re still grappling with the right way to use technology,” Gardiner said, “and there’s positives and negatives, especially with phones.”

Students say laptops are so restricted, they need phones to learn

As phone restrictions loom at New Bedford High School, many students describe “zero tolerance” technology policies that they say have inhibited their education and show how administrators are out of touch with their needs. 

These policies apply website-blocking to students’ school-provided laptops, like in many other schools. But in New Bedford, students complain that the website-blocking is so restrictive that students and teachers must petition for access to most websites. As a result, students can’t complete many basic internet searches and teachers encourage using phones for some classroom activities. School officials did not respond to questions from The Light about the website restrictions.

Talley, the student council president, provided examples where a search for “battle of the Alamo” or “AP African American studies” turned up only a dozen or two results, most of which students couldn’t actually see. Educational websites like Khan Academy were also blocked until students petitioned. 

Until last year, student computers were prevented from opening PDFs, the commonplace portable document format that is often used for articles and academic journals. Even the school’s own technology platforms were blocked, as students could not access NearPod — a common education software that many teachers use like a class website or presentation companion. Teachers had to ask students to take out their phones to access the day’s lesson materials. 

Talley had a series of meetings with administrators to communicate the basic functions that students were prevented from accessing, like not being able to send or receive emails from any address not associated with New Bedford schools (a function that is still blocked today).

It took administrators months to allow some — but not all — of these basic functions to students: they can now see PDFs, but internet searches and email are still basically useless. Talley had to gather testimonials from teachers to prove that students would benefit from accessing their own class websites.

These policies also extend to students’ computer use outside of school. Talley, for example, said he was blocked from visiting the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra’s website on his school computer at home this year. He needs to use a personal computer to complete work as a member of MASR — the statewide organization of student representatives — because he can’t email anyone from his school device. To share several of these examples with The Light, Talley had to transfer files to a personal computer because he couldn’t email directly.

Talley and other New Bedford High students have said these onerous restrictions hinder their ability to access educational opportunities, do their jobs outside of school, and undermine their trust and relationship with school itself. 

As the district considers policies to restrict or entirely prevent cell phones at New Bedford High, Talley hopes that any future policy is made in partnership with students.

“Part of the reason students get so upset is that the administration makes decisions without explaining,” Talley said. “If administrators don’t sell it or show us why they’re doing things that way, I understand why students wouldn’t trust them.”

Email Colin Hogan at [email protected]

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