As the 2017-2018 school year commences, each classroom has a new addition on its wall; pockets designed to hold students’ cellphones, otherwise known as “phone jail”, are being implemented this year. These pockets are meant to keep students from utilizing their phones during class time and lessening opportunities for cheating. 

In my opinion, “phone jail” is very useless and also, detrimental to class time. The amount of time it takes to put your phone in a pocket and then take it out again at the end of class uses up more time than just stowing it in a backpack.

As high schoolers, we do not need our teachers to hold our phones for us. We already have little to no rights on school grounds, and keeping our phones makes it seem like all of us are children. The reality is there are eighteen year olds in class as well. Someone who is able to dismiss themselves from school should not need to ask their teacher for their phone back everyday.

I also think it is hypocritical of the school to give the class of 2020 (and beyond) Chromebooks to use during class time, and yet take everyone’s phone because it is named as a “distraction”. Students can do just as much on laptops as they do with their phones, so there is no reason to to lock up one of the devices.

Junior, Lea Trainor also has strong opinions of the pockets.

“I think [the pockets] are pointless. We need our phones for more than half the time since we do not have Chromebooks,” Trainor said.

If the school wants to be more technologically advanced, not letting us use our phones is a major setback to the progress we have already made. Many teachers rely on our phones for review games. Do these pockets mean an end to the legendary battles of Kahoot?

Westford Academy strives to prepare its students for college life, but with these phone holders, the school is doing the opposite. In college, no professor is going to take every student’s phone to make sure they pay attention to the lecture. Us high schoolers are at the point in life where we should be able to make decisions of whether or not we want to engage in class, since we know the consequences of our actions.                

If the pockets must be used, I think they are only necessary when a class has a test or other assessment so cheating is lessened. Even with this, now us students are not able to go on our cellphones after finishing tests.

“I do not mind the pockets since my teachers only use them if someone is misusing their phone. I would not like it if everyone had to put their phone in one,” senior Ryan Bowen said.

As a setback in helping students mature and a waste of time, these phone pockets are not necessary in the classrooms of Westford Academy.