Barred from using their phones in class by Spokane Public Schools as of the start of this school year, students are filling their time with all kinds of retro activities from an era before cellphones.
A month into the ban, students are adjusting well as staff find enforcement to be a "nonissue," resulting in better conversations and engagement among their pupils.
The district this year tightened cellphone restrictions at its 57 schools, barring their use in class across the board but allowing high schoolers to use phones at lunch and between classes.
Over at Glover Middle School, lunches have become a stark contrast to the pre-ban days.
Staff have provided students with myriad alternatives to occupy idle hands. In the cafeteria, staff set up two ping-pong tables, video game consoles with "pre-1990s" classics, a foosball table and outdoor activities like spikeball and volleyball.
"They're begging for things to do," said Principal Mike Stark, adding that the school has spent around $1,000 on lunchtime distractions.
A group of sixth-grade boys who call themselves "the snipers" loudly twisted the bars at the foosball table that they occupy each lunch. In the throes of an animated match, the boys said the game brought them together, but they'd still rather be playing on their phones.
Across the cafeteria, another group of sixth-graders said the lack of screens in their schools has improved their attention and focus in class.
"I think it's a good thing, because I see kids' grades go up instead of going down and kids' brains, they aren't getting, like, brain cancer anymore," said sixth-grader Natalie Whittaker, describing the ill effects of phone use that don't correlate to cancer, but have been tied to mental health woes.
When phones were permitted, students would sneak photos of each other in class or fuel drama through texts. Students would set alarms with distracting sound effects to go off during class time. That's less of the case anymore, said seventh-grader Emma Schacht.
"Last year was nuts," Emma said. "Everybody was on their phones when teachers said that they could and didn't do their work when they were supposed to ... but now, when it's class time, there's no phones and teachers can actually talk without hearing, 'Oh, this game's so cool' and all that."
The lack of a phone allowed creativity to flow for sixth-grader Abby Goss, who in one class wrote a multistanza poem about fostering friendship and how it's important to understand yourself before focusing on relationships with others.
"When you're on your phone all the time, then you don't have an imagination," Abby said.
At Ferris High School, some students — but not all — pull their phones out during their 30-minute lunch break.
Many of them find sweet relief in this allowance, checking their phones for missed text messages or new posts to social media as soon as they leave their classrooms and decompressing for hours on their phones after school.
"I feel like when I'm at home, I have to make up for lost time," said Ferris senior Lilly Everett. "My screen time has gone up severely, by like a couple hours."
Though permitted, most students aren't on their phones during lunchtime. Under the mild autumn sun on a recent day, several groups of kids tossed footballs or kicked soccer balls around, though that's always been the case in Ferris' busy courtyard.
In classes at Ferris, it's headphones that present more of a distraction than the devices to which they're attached, teachers said. Though also banned, some kids hedged their bets on wireless earbuds concealed by their hair or hood.
"They've resigned it's a gamble," said Keegan Tarbell, biology and anatomy teacher at Ferris. "Either I get to listen to my music or I get my phone taken away."
Though worried about the potential power struggle with students, Ferris Assistant Principal Andrew Lewis said phone confiscations weren't as common as he expected. On the first day, staff collected one contraband cellphone. Some days, they don't confiscate any, and some days it's as high as four.
Stark also said confiscations are few and kids rarely put up a fight. Earlier in September, his middle schoolers came up with a host of excuses when caught using their phones at school.
One eighth-grader pulled it out as an impulse to check the Taco Bell app for new coupons, she said at the time. Another student had a daily alarm set on her phone to remind her to go tan during the summers; when it went off during choir class, her teacher took it.
Another student faced a dire "family emergency," she described. She spotted her older sister's boyfriend's sibling at Glover and felt she had to urgently call her with the news.
Teachers are varied in their enforcement of the policy in high school, students said, some allowing kids to snap pictures of their assignments or offering warnings before they confiscate cellphones.
Students can still do online assignments in classes, using Chromebooks available for students to check out. These devices are slower than using a phone, kids said, and school Wi-Fi blocks some websites they try to visit for class projects.
"I think you get farther using an actual brick than the computers," joked Ferris senior Lillian Finn.
"It's not like it ruined my life, but it's annoying when you need to use technology and you have to wait, like, 20 minutes," said senior Lilly Everett.
While students' experiences with the ban vary, from calling it "baloney" to attributing it to a spike in grades, staff in each corner of the schools noticed a change from students.
"Overall, it's been a game changer," said Ferris science teacher Darci Hastings. "Some kids are hiding their phones or headphones under their hoods, but it's not as blatant as it was."
Staff have credited the restrictions for many behavior improvements like better eye contact and other advancements like measurable rises in book checkouts at some schools
"We can't keep books on the shelves," said Jayna Ashlock, Glover library information specialist. "I'm hearing so many more conversations about reading happening here."
Kids at Glover checked out 350 more books this September compared to last, when cellphones were less restricted. Ashlock attributes this to the reduced phone use at her school, though middle schools around the county don't show the same patterns. Some have issued fewer books this year.
Ferris ecology teacher Daniel Henry, who teaches classes outdoors, said he's encountered fewer kids skipping class.
Even the cafeteria is feeling the change. Sheri Webber, kitchen manager at Glover, said she's pleased to see more pupils line up for free hot lunch, crediting the restriction on phones.
"They were choosing phone over food," she said. "They get home, and some don't have the proper nutrition. Here, they do, and they were turning it away, some of them."
At Ferris, the decades-old practice of passing notes in class is making a comeback, as kids pass messages scrawled onto gum wrappers and scraps of paper since they can't text in class, befuddling some teachers on how to police this resurrected trend.
"I'm just happy they're practicing their writing skills," said teacher Tarbell.
Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
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