“I frequently leave my phone in the phone holders in various classrooms, and I forget about it. … It [the phone policy] is really annoying because if it’s [the phone pockets] at the back of the classroom, there’s congestion when everyone tries to leave.”

— Will Jackson , 11th grade

“It [the phone policy] is not a big deal. You’ll survive without your phone for a few hours. I feel like when we were able to have our phones in class and everything, people would constantly go on their phones, check, play whatever, and they’re not concentrating as much.”

— Esmeralda Menjivar, 11th grade

“I love it [the phone policy]. … I and my colleagues were talking about the fact that we didn’t realize how much energy — brain energy and just classroom energy — we were using to manage phones, so it was such a difference those first two days. I wasn’t like, ‘Get off your phone, get off your phone,’ so selfishly, as a teacher, I really enjoy it [the phone policy]. I also do think that students were less distracted. … I would love to reassess and reflect on the first quarter to see how things go.”

— Katya Villalobos, social science teacher

“I think it’s good for teachers to admit it [the phone policy] for the avoidance of distraction throughout the class, because it’s scientifically proven that people have more of a pull when it [the phone] is right on them or next to them. It’ll be easier to focus on work. ”

— Andrew Knapp, 10th grade

“I think that students expect to put their phones away and the consistency around school has made it completely normalized. … I have noticed students more engaged in class [and] less distracted by potentially buzzing phones. … I have had students with texts from parents all class long, so it’s nice knowing that the expectation is that they [students] don’t have their phone until passing period.”

— Alicia Szebert, chemistry teacher