Jonathan Bisson walked through the double doors at Brunswick High School for his first day of the academic year in August. As a senior, the hallways felt familiar — except for a white, rectangular box by the door of his first class. 

The box was knee height on small wheels and contained about 25 slots where students could insert their phones at the start of the day. The boxes are meant to help students comply with a new district policy spurred by recent state law prohibiting phone use in school.

Phone restrictions in class were nothing new, Bisson said. Many of his teachers last year required students to place their phones in small plastic pouches hung on the door or wall. His band teacher even used this as a way to gauge attendance: An empty pouch likely meant an absent student, he said. 

But this year students in Brunswick and across Maine don’t get their phones back after each class. They cannot check social media on their phones in the hallways or at lunch. They can’t text their parents or friends at any point during the day.

A single paragraph on the 175th page of the state’s supplemental budget in April set a sweeping mandate for K-12 schools across the state: Ban cellphones and other electronic devices connected to the internet — with some medical and other exceptions — from “starting bell to dismissal bell” by Aug. 1.

The new law, championed by Gov. Janet Mills, was meant to limit distractions and encourage real-life connections. It made Maine the 23rd state to enforce a statewide bell-to-bell cellphone ban, according to Emily Rapp, director of public policy for the Institute for Families and Technology, based in Washington, D.C. 

Some Maine school districts said they braced for student pushback against the new restrictions.

But nearly three months into the new policy, school officials and teachers across Maine told The Maine Monitor they have been surprised by how understanding students have been, though they described some as begrudgingly compliant.

The clearcut policy and backing from the force of law has helped schools control phone use far better this academic year than in the past, said officials and teachers, who described the effects on students as overwhelmingly positive.

Teachers said students are more attentive in class, are more likely to stay on task and are completing more in-class work. 

Students are connecting with each other more in the time between classes, staff across the state said. And during lunch, staff are hearing louder and more lively conversation in the cafeteria — a stark contrast from previous years when phone use stifled talking.

On his first day of school, Bisson placed his phone in the box, closed its glass door and sat at his desk. By force of habit he tried to retrieve his phone after class and felt a small surge of panic when the small door wouldn’t open. 

But, as quickly as the feeling came, it faded.

“My phone left my mind, and I didn’t really think about not having it,” Bisson said. “In fact, I think I almost left it at school that day.”

Between school, jazz band, cross country and working as the editor in chief of the school’s student newspaper, The Dragon Gazette, which he revived last year from its last print in 1976, Bisson said he does not feel reliant on his phone. The ban did not change much about his daily routine, he said.

Many of Bisson’s classmates and friends were critical of the restrictions last year, he said, but they now support the ban as well.

‘Breath of fresh air’

Eric Hutchins teaches graphic arts at Bangor High School where he has worked for 24 years. He witnessed phones grow from a simple technology into a big distraction, which he felt he policed more than he taught his subject at times, he said.

Since the Bangor School Department set a stricter phone policy last year, which required students to place their phones in lockboxes at the start of each class, students have been much more attentive, Hutchins said.

Bangor’s shift this year was relatively small, Hutchins said. Teachers last year had to collect student phones and place them in a handheld lockbox at the start of every class. But now students go to their last class at the start of the day, place their phones in the lockbox, and then head to their first class. At the end of the day, their phones are waiting for them to pick up.

The shift in procedure saves five minutes each class, Hutchins said.

Students in Hutchins’ class work throughout the year on in-class projects that help different departments within the school — such as a poster for a school theater production. Since the stricter policy last year, he has seen a higher rate of completed projects, Hutchins said.

Andrew McCullough, an environmental science teacher at Brunswick High School, said the positive changes he has seen accompany the stricter phone policy are a “breath of fresh air.”

Students stay on task, he said. But the most dramatic changes can be seen in the interactions between students in the hallways and at the start and end of classes, he said.

Students would ordinarily “get their last fix” on their phones before his lessons started and be anxious to return to their phones once he stopped teaching, he said. Now they are more talkative with each other.

Looking back, McCullough said it was unfair to ask teenagers to monitor themselves between classes as social media connected them to the world and people around them. 

“Even kids who are exceptional students, who are good kids struggle with that — in the same way that I struggle with it,” he said.

Powered off

Some kids still find ways to use their phones during school, but the new law has cut back on the number doing so and improved school life overall, students, administrators and teachers said. 

Bisson said students routinely broke the rules last year in part because the punishment was less severe than it is now. 

If a student was caught with a phone during class last academic year, it would be confiscated for the rest of class, he said. Now, the phone is taken for the rest of the day, and the rule is taken more seriously.

“The failure to adhere to the actual rules eroded people’s faith in them last year, and we’re getting some of that back now,” Bisson said.

Now the Brunswick School Department’s discipline for student cellphone use grows in severity from a warning to a meeting with parents for repeated offenses.

Teachers at Brunswick High School catch students on their phones every day, McCullough said, and, because of the strict rules, it is easier to spot. Phones are not supposed to be seen at all.

However, as of Oct. 15, no student had been required to meet with a school administrator and their parents, McCullough said.

At Bangor High School, teachers have been told to send students with phones or other prohibited electronic devices to school administrators where they will receive a detention, Hutchins said.

Bangor High School has had only two or three infractions as of Oct. 7, department spokesperson Raymond Phinney said. The department’s two middle schools have had none.

Other electronics, such as smart watches, which are also included in the state directive, are much more difficult for teachers to police and often go unrestricted so long as they are not distractions, teachers and students said.

Some students still circumvent the rules by keeping their phones in their backpacks or on their person. Then they leave class and use their phones in the bathroom or sneakily check them during lunch, students and staff said. But phones do not impede class instruction as much as before.

Jeff Lovejoy, principal of Belfast Area High School, said administrators knew they would “lose the fight” of some students using their phones in the bathroom when they enforced their new policy this year.

Due to a flexible student schedule, the school does not have lockboxes and instead requires students to have their phones powered off and out of sight in their backpacks or lockers for the school day.

Faculty at the midcoast high school catch students on their phones about once per week, he said. 

And there are other technology challenges.

Earlier this school year students at Belfast Area High School used their school-issued Chromebooks to access an online game’s chatroom where they made anonymous posts that included bullying and racial slurs, Lovejoy said.

The incident showed administrators they needed more protocols around how students were using their laptops, he said.

Some parents were reluctant to forgo the easy connection to their child that they had grown accustomed to ahead of the passage of the law last year. But it appears that parents have still been able to reach their children — such as through school offices — when needed.

Annadene and Tom Fowler said the new process of getting in touch with their son, Eliot, is not worrisome and feels essentially the same as before. Eliot, a sophomore at Belfast Area High School, leaves his phone in his backpack everyday. In an emergency, he can get it quickly.

If Eliot’s parents need to reach him during the school day, they often email him.

Andy Badeaux, a father of two students at Brunswick High School, said he has trouble getting in touch with his children through their phones anyway because the cell signal at the school is like a “black hole.”

“My default position is supporting whatever needs to happen so the classroom can be effective at what it’s supposed to do,” Badeaux said.

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.