The new cell-phone policy at BT has created a whirlwind of opinions among students in the high school. Students are adjusting to the change, realizing what is working and what is not.
Ben W. ‘27 shared some pros and cons regarding the rules. “I think it’s making us connect more and making us talk to each other more,” he explained. However, students struggle finding one another during lunch and break. Last year, students could send a simple “where are you” text to their friends, while now they must wander through the halls to find each other. Ben mentioned other consequences such as not “having a schedule easily accessible,” and the inability to take pictures of assignments to submit to Schoology. A major struggle, according to Ben, is “communicating with our grade reps.” Without our grade WhatsApp chats available to students during school hours, they don’t always hear or remember about seminars, schedule changes, club meetings, and other special events. “I don’t really miss it,” Ben said, “it’s just harder to communicate with our friends when we need them.”
The seniors, however, have a bit of a different approach. Maya W. ‘25 spoke about the different conversations she is having since the policy was implemented, explaining “it’s not like we are just having a mindless conversation, both people are engaged.” Additionally, she elucidates on spending time with peers between classes, including more underclassmen. The biggest complication for Maya and her friends concerns their senior year experience. “My friends and I have all these memories from our freshman through junior years,” she said. Discussing the pictures and videos her friend group has from throughout high school, Maya admits, “I feel a little sad that I don’t have documented memories of our most important year.” Maya concluded by speaking about how the phone rule initially received “a lot of hate” and pushback from students, including herself. Realizing it would be “beneficial in the long-term,” Maya chose to “embrace it” and encouraged others to do the same.
Although it’s a significant change, many students are finding the phone rules to be effective. The lack of phones gives everyone the opportunity to branch out and build new connections with one another- connections that were difficult to build with our minds stuck in the media.
