Palatine High School has implemented a new cell phone policy to combat phone usage in the classroom. The policy has undergone many changes each year to combat the increase of cellphone usage in the classroom. 

“The first consequence is that the student loses their ability to use the phone and headphones in that period for multiple days,” PHS administrator Christopher Cirrincione said. “So often we will require them to turn in their cell phone for a period. The number of days often depends on how specific the instance and the number of times that the students have had a violation. If there’s numerous violations where it’s happening in multiple classes, the student will have to turn in their phone or headphones for the entire school day.”

According to the Palatine student handbook cell phones, earbuds, and personal electronic devices are not allowed in class unless given permission by a staff member. After a warning students will need to put their devices on the teachers’ desk. Persisting issues will result in the loss of electronic privileges at school. Consequences will include class suspension, turning in your phone to your administrator, and parent meeting.

“One thing that bothers me is an active texting conversation,” French teacher Cara Melbou said. “As opposed to a quick glance every once and a while that doesn’t bother me. But when I see this when I’m actively teaching, that does bother me. So that is the one time when I will say ‘put your phone away, you’re distracted right now and you’re supposed to be listening, and paying attention.’”

Jama Pediatrics conducted a study on teens and how much time on average they spend on their screens gaming, texting/video chatting, streaming shows and movies, and browsing social media along with the internet and found it to be almost 8 hours a day. In 2021 91% of 14-year-olds own a smartphone.

“My top three would be Youtube, Snapchat, and Spotify,” senior Shawn Adler said.

Social media platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, and BeReal along with many of the mobile games available for download are a big part of why teens spend so much time on their phones. 

“So there’s this one game that I’ve been playing a lot, it’s called Surviver.io,” Adler said. “I’ve been playing that way too much. I play it to fall asleep”.

On the iPhones specifically, people can go check their battery and it shows how much time they spend on their phones and it includes the apps one spends the most time on. 

“It’s probably really bad,” Adler said. “Eight hours there you go.”

These phone policies will continue for the foreseeable future.