ROSEVILLE – The new school year is just around the corner, but there is one thing students in the Roseville City School District are not allowed to bring to class: cell phones.

Roseville City is just one of many school districts throughout California tries to get students to turn off their devices in the hope that it will increase their engagement and attention in and outside of the classroom. The first day of school was last week.

“I think it’s just a good idea for the school to strengthen interpersonal relationships instead of constantly using the phone,” says Manny Galvan, who has a son who is in 7th grade at Eich Middle School.

Kristen and Manny Galvan are all for the cell phone ban, but are not so sure about the students.

“I think some kids still want to use their cell phones and learn how to use them secretly,” Galvan said.

Although students are still allowed to take their phones to school, they must now turn them off from the first ring to the last.

“For us, it’s simple: less distraction, more focus,” said Darren Brown, principal of Eich Middle School.

Brown said this policy change did not happen overnight. The city of Roseville has been developing it for years.

“We visited other schools,” Brown said. “We talked to other districts.”

The biggest difference he noticed when visiting other campuses was that the children talked to each other.

“We’ve lost that a little bit,” Brown said.

What happens if a student gets caught?

If a student is caught using a cell phone during school hours, he or she will receive a warning for the first offense. For the second offense, parents will be notified and school consequences will be threatened. For the third offense, detention will be imposed.

If a student is caught using the phone a fourth time, he or she must hand the phone over to a locked place in the office for the entire school day.

“We hope we never get to step four or five and that students may not accept the policy but at least understand it,” Brown said.

One of the biggest changes to this policy is that students are not allowed to use their cell phones during lunch, which means they have to interact with each other.

“She’s worried that if she’s having a bad day or people are bullying her, she won’t be able to contact me, which was possible last year and I could pick her up,” said Sara Townsend, whose daughter is in the 7th grade at Eich Middle.

What are the implications of this directive?

Townsend does not believe that taking away cell phones will solve bullying if children continue to have access to other technological devices in the classroom.

“My daughter was actually bullied on the school-issued Chromebooks last year,” Townsend said.

Robert Farias, a professor of sociology at UC Davis, recently conducted a study on children who were cut off from technology. It found that 20% of the children surveyed said they felt relief. However, this was not the majority.

“Many of them reported feeling anxious, but I think a lot of that anxiety was due to fear of missing out,” Farias said.

While Farias said the cell phone ban policy is unlikely to bring about radical change, he acknowledged that the limited research to date, particularly at the academic level, points in a positive direction.

“I don’t think a cell phone ban will radically change the prevalence or intensity of cyberbullying,” Farias said. “It just postpones it until the end of the school day.”

He cited some of the results of other studies conducted.

“A study in the UK found that test results were significantly better,” said Farias. “A study in Sweden found that children spent less time sitting and were more active after cell phone bans were introduced.”

Farias also pointed out that in some cases, it was crucial that students were able to record teacher or student misconduct on campus simply because they recorded it on a cell phone. However, Brown believes that sometimes this leads to an escalation of the situation.

“I think it will actually prevent some of these things,” Brown said.

Parents’ concerns

Meanwhile, the Lincoln Unified School District in Stockton is also introducing a ban on cell phones in schools.

Elementary and middle school students will have their phones confiscated for the entire day, while high school students will have their phones returned during recess and lunch.

“Let’s not be naive, there’s a lot going on in Stockton, not to mention around the world,” said Lincoln Unified Parent Tamaya Buriss.

The biggest concern for most parents is safety.

“It makes both of us nervous, not just her, but me too,” Townsend said.

Even though parents trust that the school will educate their children safely every school day, some lack the same trust when it comes to communication.

“I can tell you that my youngest daughter has already gone to the elementary school and said she had a headache and they tried to persuade her to go back to school,” Townsend said.

The superintendent of the Lincoln Unified School District said that not using cell phones during emergencies could help prevent the spread of misinformation among parents.

“I don’t agree with that,” said Buriss. “With everything going on in the world, I want to be accessible to my child.”

Brown said they were willing to make some exceptions.

“In the event of a real emergency, which we hope never happens, children are of course allowed to use their phones if necessary,” Brown said.

Of course, back then, when most parents were still in school, there were no mobile phones.

“Adults are on the phone all the time and I think sometimes maybe we can learn from the school’s decision,” Galvan said.

But in the age of technology, can a ban on cell phones in schools really make up for the learning loss and teach new habits to a generation that is constantly glued to screens?

“If you can do something that will result in less distraction and more focus for our kids, I’m all for it,” Brown said.

The new directive also applies to other smart technologies such as Apple Watches.