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Before classes began at her high school in northern Colorado, senior Madison Vella heard complaints about new rules banning cell phone use during class.

“Many students said, ‘This is stupid. We’re almost adults,'” she said.

The rule change took some getting used to, but it has been positive, said Vella, a 12th-grader at Greeley West High School. Students are more involved in class and there is a stronger sense of community, she said.

Vella’s Greeley-Evans District 6 school district is one of several in Colorado that recently implemented new rules on student cellphone use. The crackdown comes at a time when more educators and experts say cellphones are a major problem in the nation’s schools – distracting students, hindering their learning and harming their mental health.

Authorities in Brighton’s 27J District have implemented stricter measures over the past year to make schools safer and give students a break from constant social media exposure, said Jaime White, the district’s executive director of safety, health, student services and high schools. Previously, students sometimes used their phones to organize fights during class, leading to physical confrontations shortly after students were dismissed, she said.

During a meeting about 27J’s cell phone ban policy, Principal Krista Dean told of an eighth-grader at Stuart Middle School in Commerce City who said, “I feel like I can breathe without them.”

A Chalkbeat survey of Colorado’s 20 largest school districts found that District 27J is among six that have implemented stricter cellphone policies in the past two years. The others are District 49, Mesa County Valley District 51, Littleton, Pueblo 70 and Colorado Springs 11, which require middle and high school students to keep their phones in locked bags.

Other districts have addressed cell phone restrictions in different ways. Greeley-Evans district leaders announced new rules in a letter to parents earlier this month and plan to formally revise the district policy later this year. Poudre district in Fort Collins also sent a letter to parents this month informing parents of elementary and middle school students that its policy largely banning cell phone use during the school day will be enforced this year.

Spokespeople for two other districts – Boulder Valley and Adams 12 – said district leaders would revise their cellphone policies this year.

One teacher tried autonomy. It didn’t work.

Jeffco, the state’s second-largest school district, is one of six large districts that does not have a district-wide cell phone policy. Teachers and schools set their own rules.

Starting this week, cell phones are the ticket students must hand over when they attend John Gallup’s history and politics class at Arvada West High School. The phones are stored in a clear plastic box that Gallup jokingly calls “Phone Jail.” (His daughter, a recent high school graduate, plans to decorate the box and rename it “Phone Vacation.”)

This is a different approach than the one Gallup has been taking for the past two years. His idea was to treat the students – most of them seniors – like young adults and let them use the phone as they see fit.

“To be quite honest,” he said, “that approach was a total failure because the kids couldn’t control themselves. They just couldn’t do it.”

During an average class period, three-quarters of students will constantly check their phones when a text message or notification buzzes, he said.

A surprising number of students know it’s a problem, he said. In an introductory survey Gallup conducts, several students say they want to spend less time on their phones or combat their social media addiction.

Gallup said he would prefer a simple, straightforward cell phone policy in the school district – such as not allowing students to carry cell phones in the classroom.

Students’ opinions on mobile phones in school vary widely

Vella, the Greeley West student, said before the school district restricted cellphone use, she often saw students texting or scrolling through Instagram or TikTok during class.

“Whenever there was a dead moment in class, students immediately pulled out their cell phones,” she said.

Today, most of their teachers remind students at the beginning of class to put away their cell phones and “unbud” them – that is, to remove their headphones. One of them gives students a quarter point extra for each day they leave their cell phones in the “phone garage” – a row of hanging cell phone pockets.

Most students followed the new rules, Vella said.

“It has gotten a lot better and students are talking more … about the lessons themselves or other things that are happening at school,” she said.

Luka Nieto, an 11th-grader at Lakewood High School in Jeffco County, doesn’t think a one-size-fits-all cell phone policy is necessary. He said the rules should be set by individual teachers and should fit their teaching style. He noted that his English teacher, whose class he loves, has a strict cell phone rule from start to finish, but other teachers are more relaxed and allow students to use their phones occasionally.

A blanket cell phone policy would likely suffer the same fate as his school’s stricter dress code a few years ago, Nieto said. Students largely ignored it and dressed however they wanted.

“It just got to the point where the school basically stopped enforcing it,” Nieto said.

Parents want to stay connected

Some parents fear that restricting cell phone use at school will prevent them from accessing their phones in an emergency. However, school administrators also fear that rumours and misinformation can sometimes be spread through text messages from parents to their children.

Anthony Asmus, assistant principal at Greeley-Evans, said some parents like to track their child’s whereabouts via cell phone. Since students’ cell phones are allowed to remain on during the school day, that will still be possible under the new rules.

Asmus said some parents have also raised concerns about students tracking medical issues on their phones – for example, with an app that alerts them when blood sugar levels are out of whack. He said the district will work with families in such cases.

Some educators say parents are among the biggest culprits when it comes to encouraging students to use cell phones.

“Kids tell us – and they tell us all the time – that their parents are texting or calling,” said White, of District 27J. “We live in a generation of parents and children who have always had cell phones.”

Sometimes parents share logistical news, like being late to pick up their children from school. But there’s plenty of trivial communication, too.

Gallup, the history teacher at Jeffco University, said when he asks students in the middle of class who they are texting, he hears things like, “Oh, my mom … My sister forgot to feed the cat.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood and early literacy issues. You can reach Ann at [email protected].