While online and digital learning has become the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, the reliance on technology has left students, and potentially everyone else, more tied to their mobile phones.

Some teachers have had enough.

The Santa Barbara Unified School District has been working for several years to limit cell phone use in the classroom.

Two years ago, the school district implemented an “Off and Away” policy that required students to keep their electronic devices in their backpacks and not use them during class.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently praised the district for its efforts while encouraging other districts across the state to follow suit.

Now Santa Barbara Unified State College high schools are taking their policy to the next level.

This year, there will be a “cell phone hotel” in every classroom where students must put their cell phones before each lesson. Many teachers use a numbered cloth bag as a “cell phone hotel.”

Phones must remain in the “cell phone hotel” during bathroom breaks, but students may pick up their phones after class and use them during lunch and other breaks.

Assistant Principal ShaKenya Edison said the “off and away” policy was implemented after teachers called for a district-wide restriction on cellphone use in class. At the time, teachers were left to decide whether to use a “cellphone hotel” or have students simply leave their electronic devices in their backpacks.

Now Dos Pueblos High School, Santa Barbara High School and San Marcos High School have decided to use cell hotels school-wide.

Edison said they treat cell phone use as an addiction that distracts students from learning and participating in class.

“We had students for two and a half years whose only means of social interaction and/or access to class was a device,” Edison said. “So that dependency excludes the pandemic, but it was definitely amplified after the pandemic.”

San Marcos High School implemented a school-wide cell hotel policy in the middle of last school year, but many teachers had already been using the cell hotels for several years.

Devon Espejo began teaching art in San Marcos last year after previously teaching middle school students and quickly realizing how unfocused the students really were.

“When I got to high school, I was like, ‘Oh my God. It’s everywhere.’ It’s a constant distraction,” Espejo said. “There are 2,000 people in San Marcos, and the administration can’t handle it alone.”

Espejo said she had a class of 35 students last year and had to spend 15 minutes at the beginning of class just dealing with the phones. She said students would set up fake phones in the cellphone hotels or lie about not having a phone, forcing her to question her own students.

“I don’t like when trust issues arise and I have to question them,” Espejo said. “It just takes away my time to teach. Now my job is to monitor phones. I want to teach art. That’s what I want to do, not monitor phones.”

Espejo hopes things will improve now that other schools are implementing cell phone hotels. She would also like to see a system that sends parents a text message if their child breaks the rules or has to have their phone confiscated. The district already has a system that notifies parents via text message if their child is absent or late for school.

“I would love to have a way to automatically send messages to parents with just one click, because right now there are many layers of protocol and this is happening all the time,” Espejo said. “I can’t stop it unless I have a button to notify parents immediately.”

When students violated the rules, Espejo was told she had to call the campus security team to have the students taken to the office where they could meet with the dean and call home before being sent back to class.

“Repeat offenders do it all the time, but some kids get scared and don’t do it again,” Espejo said. “All I say is, take the phone away and keep the child in class.”

When Dos Pueblos High School Principal Bill Woodard saw San Marcos roll out mobile hotels across its campus, he decided to try it out at the start of the new school year. And now Santa Barbara High School will do the same.

“This will hopefully reduce the distraction and the temptation to wear it on your body. Even though you can technically take it off and put it away, there are too many loopholes,” Woodard said.

Woodard said he was also motivated by the amount of research that says students are distracted by their phones in class.

“We decided that we are an educational institution and it is time to take a stand and simply do this for our own good, for the good of the students, for their well-being and their education,” Woodard said.

Woodard said he has received a positive response from parents and is confident that with their help, students will follow the rules.

“At Dos Pueblos, at least, 90 percent of our students do what we ask of them. They’re great kids, they understand, they follow the rules,” Woodard said. “For the 10 percent that don’t, we have a graduated series of consequences.”

If the problem becomes too big, Woodard says students will no longer be allowed to bring their cell phones to school at all. Some parents have already requested this.

There are some exceptions for students who need their phone for medical reasons, such as monitoring insulin levels, but earbuds and other electronic devices must be turned off and stowed away.

Gracie Perez, mother of an 11th-grader from San Marcos and a 2020 graduate, said she was pleased with the school’s efforts to limit distractions.

“For me as a parent, it’s a good idea to remove distractions from students,” Perez said. “It’s a good idea because it makes the kids focus more on learning and studying and not just staring at their phones all the time.”

Perez said that last year, when San Marcos was under a curfew, students were allowed to contact their families through their phones. Last year, Perez had another case when she needed to reach her daughter, so she called the office and was able to speak to her within five minutes.

Perez said her daughter doesn’t like having to hand over her phone, but she understands why the school is doing it.

“Cell phones should be something you use in your free time and at home,” Perez said. “They have their iPads for school work and chat with their friends at lunch, so it’s not a big deal. I think it’s a great idea.”