Lowell High teens oppose smartphone crackdown
But research backs district’s new policy locking up devices during class
Students at Lowell High School may be skipping classes on Wednesday to protest a new, stricter cellphone policy. That’s the rumor, anyway.
The high school, with over 3,000 students, already prohibited kids from looking at their phones during class. The new policy, which takes effect on Wednesday, will require that all phones be put away in special lockers during class. It’s part of a trend, locally and nationally, toward restricting the use of smartphones in schools.
But for Gen Z teens, the smartphone is the center of social life, communication, and oftentimes school work. It’s also a link to emergency services for a generation that has seen the risk of gun violence in schools as a tragic reality for their entire lives.
“It’s a sad but true fact that a majority of students only feel safe and secure when we have our phones on us,” said Kendrick Del Orbe, a 17-year-old junior who posted an online petition opposing tighter phone rules at the school. “I understand the desire to take away phones from an academic point of view, but in emergency situations we’ve seen in Texas and elsewhere, students are calling 911, they’re calling their parents.”
Del Orbe’s petition, which calls for the policy to be reconsidered but does not call for a walkout, has almost 1,300 signatures so far.
Educators said they are reacting to a growing body of research showing the harms of smartphone use and social media apps, particularly for teens. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory last year warning of harm from excessive exposure to social media apps.
“We want to ensure that every student has the opportunity to focus on their studies without any interruptions from their phones,” Lowell High School head of school Michael Fiato wrote in a July memo recommending the change. “We believe that this policy will not only help students stay on task, but it will also promote a more positive and productive classroom experience.”
Reached for comment on Tuesday, Fiato wrote: “We know change is difficult and it is human nature to resist it, but we would ask the students to give this policy a chance and see how it works before condemning it. Similar policies have been successfully implemented in other high schools in Massachusetts, across the nation, and internationally
and I think eventually they will be the norm across the board.”
Lowell is following the lead of other high schools in the region that are cracking down on smartphone use during class time, including Salem and Chicopee. They’ve been encouraged by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which opened a grant program over the summer to help pay for programs to restrict phone use, including lockers and pouches. Some schools have gone even further. In 2022, the Buxton School in the Berkshires banned smartphones from campus entirely.
“The distracted learning environment that screens of all sorts create is a serious problem that needs addressing at the middle school and high school levels,” said Boston College professor Matt Sienkiewicz, who studies social media. “It is emotionally compelling and true to say that phones in certain instances could provide help. At the same time, we need to make realistic risk assessments [and] balance them against educational costs.”
Paul Weigle, cochair of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry’s media committee, agreed. “There is no evidence that youth with cellphones at school are any safer than those without,” he said. “However, the vast majority of a high schooler’s use of cell phone during school is for entertainment and socializing in a manner that distracts from learning and detracts from healthier inperson solicitation.”
Del Orbe maintains that it’s not the phones causing distraction, it’s the educators. And he said students were not given a chance to participate in crafting the new phone policy.
“The few times kids catch themselves on their phones during class is when the curriculum is not engaging, there is no teacher present, or a substitute is giving us busy work,” he said. “That all really happens to us.”
Del Orbe said he won’t be walking out of class on Wednesday, though he understands the frustration of those who do.
“I understand where they’re coming from, to have something like this sprung on us,” he said.