Starting this year, phones were banned in HHS along with all other public schools in Virginia. Although it was not mandated by the Virginia Department of Education to implement the policy until Jan. 2025, HHS started the ban at the beginning of the school year. Since then, an average of 12-15 cell phones have been collected each day.
Junior Gabe Sabarre believes that the mood of school has changed because of the ban. Sabarre noticed that students are interacting with each other more.
“People are more talkative this year, more people are interacting, and not like last year [when everyone] was just on [their] phone in the hallway, their head is down to their phone. This year, their head is up, and looking around and interacting [with] people that they usually would interact with,” Sabarre said.
Sabarre believes the atmosphere, specifically at lunch time, feels different because students are talking and socializing instead of scrolling.
“I’ve seen people interact that I’ve never seen before. Ever since Covid, there’s been less social interaction. I think just having less phones is more reason to go out and talk to people that you haven’t talked to before,” Sabarre said.
Mark Healy, a European History and Psychology teacher, has views similar to Sabarre’s.
“Instead of you being on your phone and just looking at the screen, you have to actually talk with somebody else,” Healy said. “I’ve heard there’s a much different climate in the cafeteria, people are talking and engaging with each other rather than scrolling on the phone.”
Healy has also noticed that the school is adapting quickly to the new policy. To help students adjust to the ban, Healy tries not to use his phone during the school day, too. He believes fewer phones are being taken away since the start of the year.
“[The students have] all have done an amazing job adjusting to the new rule. Based on the amount of referrals that I know we’ve had, and the amount of times that phones have been taken away, I think you would be surprised,” Healy said. “There’s a lot less than you would imagine. There are a few people that are chronic, but overall, most people are following the policy.”
Sabarre recalled that last year his phone was a distraction because he was often getting texts from his friends who were also in school. He also noticed students last year had a hard time not pulling out their phones just because of a habit. Healy also struggled with students being distracted by their phones last year.
“About every day I had to get on somebody for being on their phone or being distracted on a regular basis. Typically, if I asked you to put it away, people [would] normally put it away, but I would say I had to address that several times a day,” Healy said.