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Editor’s Note: This article was written for Mosaic, an independent journalism training program for high school and college students who report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists. SAN MATEO – Aragon High School senior Francez Santos worries when she is in class.
The reason is that at any moment there could be an emergency — an active shooter on campus or a fire — but she would have difficulty accessing her phone due to a no-cell-phone policy implemented this year.
This school year, the San Mateo Union High School District implemented a cell-phone ban policy to foster a focused learning environment, support student well-being and encourage face-to-face connection, according to the district.
This policy covers 10 schools in San Mateo County, including those in San Mateo, Foster City, Burlingame, Hillsborough, Millbrae and San Bruno. But some students say they are worried about what will happen during a school emergency and wonder how they will call for help without their phones.
“I think American schools aren’t safe enough to implement this policy during emergencies,” Santos said.
“Especially if students want to contact their parents, they need a sou rce of communication saying, ‘I’m in danger, or I’m safe.’ And parents also need this sense of reassurance from their kids.” The district purchased a QuietCase for every high school student, a lockable signal-blocking phone pouch that prevents phones from receiving and sending signals.
Students can bring their phone to school, but it needs to be placed in the pouch and locked. Only a teacher can unlock each pouch using a school-specific magnet.
The policy also prevents students from using any smart devices such as personal computers, tablets, watches and headphones. Aragon High School’s cell-phone policy dictates that students’ phones should stay locked up starting from their first class period to their last, including brunch and lunch.
This includes when students are away on school-sponsored field trips and outings. According to the district’s policy, unauthorized device usage will result in temporary confiscation.
The device will later be returned to the student or parent/guardian in accordance with administrative guidelines. This year, Aragon High School has a new principal, Peter Alvarez, who was not a part of the district when the policy was created.
Alvarez said that dependin g on the type of emergency, the district has a policy in place to prioritize the safety of all students and educators.
For example, if the school were to be evacuated due to fire or harsh weather, the school would unlock the QuietCases and give students access to their phones, Alvarez said, citing the district’s policy.
When asked about the district’s policy on phones during an emergency, the district referred to the policy on their website. The webpage doesn’t mention what happens in case of an active threat on campus or lockdown.
When asked whether Aragon students could access their phones during an active threat or lockdown, Alvarez said it isn’t a good idea for students to be on their phones.
“If there’s an event here in the main office, and we are engaged with an active threat, and we’re hiding … I’m not going to want students to be contacting their parents or having conversations with people while we’re trying to hide from an active threat or have phones going off … we’re gonna want to make ourselves as inconspicuous as possible,” Alvarez said.
Some students understand this point of view, but say they feel that having phones out will not attract more attention than there alre ady is. Senior Madeline Allen said most students don’t keep their ringers on so incoming texts and calls wouldn’t cause much noise.
“Even then, if there were an intruder on campus, I don’t think a quiet classroom is stopping them from looking anyway because they know that there are usually gonna be students in most of the classrooms they walk by,” Allen said.
“I understand the whole don’t make noise thing because if there’s a group of people making noise, it will draw more attention.
But realistically speaking, they know that people are in there and cell phones are not going to really change anything.” In the final weeks of school last semester, two students at Aragon High School got in a fight, and police were called.
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