As the almost 3,000 students walk into the halls tomorrow morning for the first day of school, there will be one big change taking precedence over all the other changes: no phones allowed.
Willis ISD announced the “Off & Away” policy on Aug. 1. According the the district’s Facebook page, personal communication devices including phones, smartwatches and earbuds are not allowed during the school day in Willis ISD. This includes during class time, breakfast, lunch and while moving between classes.
“Students must keep their devices turned off and stored away in their backpacks throughout the day,” the Facebook post states. “If a student uses a device without permission during school hours, it will be confiscated and addressed as detailed in the Student Handbook.”
Due to the passing of House Bill 1481, all Texas schools now prohibit student use of personal communication devices during the school day. The official implementation of this bill will be effective tomorrow. In order to comply with the new bill, Principal Eric King has established new policies and consequences to those who don’t follow the new rules.
“There is no gray area with cell phones,” King said. “It is a state law. There are no what ifs. There are no exceptions. Power off the phone. Put it in your backpack. The end.”
With this bill coming from Texas itself, many students are upset that they aren’t able to use it during their free time at lunch or passing periods.
“I think it’s unfair that we can’t even have them during lunch or breakfast,” junior Adleigh Bagwell said. “That isn’t even school time and should be treated as free time. People are fighting and vaping in class but sure let’s focus on the non issue.”
On the other hand, some students believe that this bill will have a positive effect.
“I think a lot of grades will go up,” senior Tayler Sena said. “There will be a lot less distractions.”
In the parents’ perspective, there are a lot of reasons why some families continuously reach out to students during the school day.
“This ban that is put in place is gonna get a lot of reactions from the parents also,” junior Ryder Sciba said. “Like how their kids have phones in case of an emergency, and if they don’t have that ability then parents are going to be more anxious to send their kids to school.”
This new rule being implemented in the school is going to be a strict change for all the students, as this phone ban hasn’t been the first time being implemented at our school.
“How would they stop children from using their phones this year,” junior Sarah Mailhot said. “They enforced it last year and everyone ignored it. Why wouldn’t they still ignore it this year?”
