Five years ago, Adam Gelb, who was serving as assistant principal at San Mateo High School, helped ignite a monumental movement for high schools across the nation — the prohibition of cell phones. There, he implemented a cell phone policy prohibiting students from accessing their phones for the entire school day, a decision that earned national media coverage. “We became the biggest public school in the country to go cell phone free bell to bell,” Gelb said.
Gelb is now in his third year as Menlo’s assistant upper school director. During an assembly on Tuesday, Sept. 3, he announced that Menlo will be adopting a new cell phone usage policy for the Upper School. Students are now required to place their phones in a designated cubby area when they walk in the door for class or advocacy. “I think you come to school to learn and you do that in the classroom and advocacy, so let’s make those cell phone free spaces,” Gelb said.
On Monday, Sept. 23, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation giving public schools in the state two years to begin restricting cell phone usage during school hours. Gelb doesn’t think placing restrictions on phones in this fashion would be the best for the Menlo community at the moment. “I didn’t feel like that much of an aggressive approach was needed,” he said. “I’d say a good amount — like 80 to 85 percent — of our students are not on their phones during lunch. That’s different from what I’ve seen on other campuses.”
Sophomore Matthew Majalya thinks that the new phone cubbies in classrooms have been a good addition. “When [the phone] is in your pocket and you get a notification, it is certainly distracting and can take your mind off the work that you’re doing,” he said.
Senior and Student Body Vice President Melanie Goldberg agrees that students’ use of phones can disrupt academic time. “I do think kids pick up their phones, myself included, when they’re going to the bathroom,” she said. “That’s a bad issue we have.”
“I would not want our phones to be taken away [all day] — I would be strongly opposed to that,” Goldberg added. “But I think during classes it makes sense.”
Computer science teacher Douglas Kiang, who came to Menlo five years ago, has maintained his own phone protocol in his classroom for the past few years. “We’ve had a policy that students drop their phones at the front of the room,” he said. “I haven’t heard any complaints.”
Kiang added that he’s seen the biggest impact in his advocacy, where he’s also had students put their phones away. “I feel like it has caused [the students in my advocacy] to interact with each other more,” he said.
Although Kiang and a handful of other teachers had already been enforcing their own phone policies, Gelb thinks that the new school-wide policy creates a uniform feeling around phones across the campus. “Your classroom experience is going to be the same in all your classes now,” he said.
Upper School wellness counselor, Jake Fauver, has had conversations with several students about the new policy in classrooms. “I think more kids are like ‘Yeah this serves me, even though it’s annoying or frustrating,”’ Fauver said.
Starting this school year, several other Bay Area private schools — including Crystal Springs Uplands School, Woodside Priory High School and rival Sacred Heart School — began enforcing their own phone policy rules outside the classroom.
Fauver has noticed the magnetic draw of phones when students have a down moment. Nevertheless, he thinks that if Menlo were to enforce a phone policy outside of the classroom, it could exacerbate excessive screen time after school. “I’m a fan of taking a gradual approach and I’m a fan of starting with academics,” Fauver said. “It is nice that as an independent school, we can kind of figure out what the sweet spot is.”
According to Gelb, parents too have shown general support for the new phone policy. Annamarie Louie, the mother of current sophomore, Marissa Louie, and two other Upper School alums, commends administrators for taking on the issue. However, Louie was surprised that the school hadn’t started with lunch time to emphasize student connection. “It’s heartbreaking to me when I see students sitting together and not talking to one another because they are all on their phones,” Louie said. “That’s the part that concerns me most as a parent.”
Part of Menlo’s programming to help students improve their relationship with technology involved bringing in Project Reboot founder, Dino Ambrosi, to address the upper school at an assembly on Sept. 17. Project Reboot is a research-backed program that helps students build an informed and intentional use of technology. Ambrosi spoke about how students turn to their phone as a distraction when they feel stress, anxiety or boredom and offered a variety of tools to help combat this issue.
“I definitely agree with phones in the cubbies in classrooms,” Ambrosi said in an interview with The Coat of Arms. “It’s a no brainer; like, you are literally measurably smarter [without the phone].” Ambrosi, too, questions the value of an all-day ban on phones. To him, students must develop their own habits around their devices because technology regulations won’t be in place after they graduate, but the technology will. “I think it is a bit belittling and condescending to be like, ‘You are not capable of living with this thing in your pocket,’” Ambrosi said.
Kiang agrees with Ambrosi’s point that students should have access to their phones when it does not interfere with instructional time. “I think students need to develop the ability to choose when to be on the phone and when not to,” he said.
Gelb plans to continue discussions around phone usage with parents, teachers, administration and especially students. “I think students realize that it’s probably a good thing if they could be on their screens less, or on a certain app less,” he said. “I just don’t think they want to do it alone.”
