On Tuesday, November 21st, the Iowa City Community School Board voted 5-2 to ban cellphone use during class time. This district-wide policy will go into effect on January 21st, 2025.
The policy states, “Student cell phones shall not be seen, heard, or in use during instructional time. Also no headphones/earbuds during instructional time.”
For middle school students, cell phones are allowed during passing time and lunch. For high school students, cell phones are allowed during passing time, lunch, and open hours in designated areas, for example, the commons.
Ania Naso, Student Senate Vice-President, stated in a Press-Citizen article that she believed the current City High phone policy wasn’t being implemented properly.
“I don’t believe this new policy will cause teachers to enforce it better, as they never truly enforced the last policy. However, do believe it will draw teacher’s attention to phones once again,” Naso ‘25 said.
The rules have not changed, but the enforcement has.
“In our current policy, if a phone does come out, our teachers are supposed to ask kids to put it in the wall pocket just for the rest of class. As long as kids do that, they can just get it back at the end of class, and it’s all good. The new policy requires teachers to have a hall monitor come and pick up the phone if it’s brought out, and have the phone be locked up all day long. Then, kids get it back at the end of the day,” Principal John Bacon said.
Students will only be given one warning at the beginning of class to put their phone away. If they get out of their cell phone (without permission) after that, they will breach the policy. Subsequently, students will be required to sign a documentation sheet declaring that they broke the policy.
Here are the consequences listed in the policy.
1st Offense: Loss of phone, earbuds, and/or headphones for day; Student will receive their device(s) at end of their school day.
2nd Offense: Loss of phone, earbuds, and/or headphones for day; Student will receive their device(s) at end of their school day; an additional infraction will result in parent/guardian(s) being contacted.
3rd Offense: Loss of phone, earbuds, and/or headphones for day; Parent/Guardian contacted by administration; Student will receive their device(s) at end of their school day; A parent/guardian meeting will be held if another infraction occurs.
4th Offense: Loss of phone, earbuds, and/or headphones until parent/guardian meeting. Administration contacts parents/guardians.
5th Offense: Technology Plan Implemented. Administration contacts parents/guardians; Technology plan created during the parent/guardian meeting
In November, Governor Kim Reynolds announced that she plans to propose legislation would ban cellphones in Iowa schools. Though she has not released the specifics on her plan, the 2025 legislative session begins January 13th.
