Wilsonville has a new boss in town, and it’s known as “the new phone policy.” This new policy enforces the rule that encourages high school students to have their electronics off and away at all times during class.

A junior at Wilsonville High School, Audrey Counts, is said to be knowledgeable about the new enforcement. “I know a lot about the new phone policy because the teachers and staff went over the rules many times. The expectations are clear, which abolishes any disagreement between teachers and students.”

Depending on the class, if a teacher sees a phone out, they have the capability to warn the student to put their device away or to take that student’s phone away for a period of time.

Outside of the classroom, the halls are a risky place for phones, as well, due to the hall monitor, Marcus Washington, being on the lookout for unlawful screen time. Rumored to be holding a bin while doing this, Marcus walks around the halls and will stash phones in the office until the end of the day.

As a senior, Luke Haener has seen the changes Wilsonville has undergone through the years. Haener states, “I know that this semester, they are cracking down a lot harder than the first semester.” 

This change can be hard for students to face after years of having their phones sitting at their desks and serving as entertainment in times of need. However, is it possible that this new way of schooling can be seen as a positive for high school students? 

Haener shares how this change has impacted him: “This policy has helped me to be more engaged in class and stop the habit of always having my phone with me.”

Ruling the school alongside the phone policy are hall passes. Hall passes come in many shapes and forms that vary from class to class. Some of these passes are a simple lanyard, while others can take the form of a wearable slab of cardboard. 

These items allow students to leave the classroom for a plethora of reasons. Going to the bathroom, filling up water bottles, and going for a walk are all accessible through the use of a hall pass. 

It seems like students would love and cherish the freedom that hall passes bring, but instead, the only thing they have brought some students is controversy. 

“I do not use hall passes often, but I think if a person has to go to the bathroom, they should be allowed to go and not have to wait for someone else to come back,” says Haener.

 The struggle with hall passes is the reliability students have to have on one another. If one student takes off with the hall pass and disappears for 30 minutes, another poor student will have to depend on them to come back so they can go to the bathroom. 

“I don’t mind hall passes,” states Counts. “I really dislike the rule about one at a time and having to wait for whoever is out. I understand not having the whole class in the halls getting distracted, but we should be able to have at least two people out at a time.”

She continues by saying “Sometimes I use the hall pass and sometimes not.”

Hall passes have shown to be unpopular along with being useless at WVHS. Because of their flawed system and creating havoc with its ‘one at a time’ policy, students often opt to leave the hall pass behind. 

Has the no-phone rule been proven to be as flawed as the hall passes have? What do these students have to say about changing their ways and pocketing their phones?

Counts shares, “I would want to be on my phone, so I think it’s good that we’re supposed to put them away. I can manage my phone on my own for a while but eventually, I make bad habits.”

She finishes by strongly stating, “Overall, the phone rules are beneficial, but the hall passes are dumb.”

Luke Haener gives his take by saying, “I think that having my phone away from me when doing work has been very beneficial, but when we are done with work, I think we should be able to go on them.”

Students appear to want to focus in class and agree that having their phones away will help with that. They also seem to want some leeway when it comes to finishing work early. 

Although Wilsonville High School is in the beginning stages of the new policy, the effects have been shown to be mostly positive. The students of Wilsonville can only hope that good things will come out of letting go of their old ways.