Students walked into Northwest Yeshiva High School in August ready to start the year only to discover that they had to stow away their phones.
This year, students have to turn in their phones when they enter the school. If a student needs to contact their parents they must go to the front office and ask for their phone back for only the duration of use. If a staff member catches a student using their phone without permission the phone will be taken and returned at the end of the day along with everyone else’s.
This new policy has sparked debates as to whether the ban is constructive. Many teachers think that the phone ban is helpful.
“[It’s] good for a multitude of reasons,” Beth Jacoby, the director of admissions of NYHS, said. “The learning experience becomes more genuine without the distraction of the cellphones.”
Ben Legel, NYHS science teacher, says that he believes the phone ban is beneficial to the learning environment because phones are so easy to take out in class.
This year’s phone ban is not the first of its kind in NYHS history. In the 2022-2023 school year, there was also a phone ban. Teachers would collect the students’ phones during the first period Torat Chaim block. Students had the ability to get their phones during lunch, which, according to Legel, caused students to pile on into the front office when lunch came around.
According to Jacoby, one of the key differences between the phone ban of the 2022-2023 school year and today is that there was a lot more pushback then due to how the ban was implemented.
She says that this new change was caused by change in the administration, mainly the new head of school, Rabbi Ben Aaronson.
“Students may not have a cell phone, smartphone, or any other portable electronic device in their possession throughout the school day,” the handbook says. Rabbi Aaronson was not available for comment.
In the article, “The Impact of Smartphone Use on Course Comprehension and Psychological Well-Being in the College Classroom,” from the National Library of Medicine, Melissa Huey and David Giguere suggest that ”students whose smartphones were physically removed during class had higher levels of course comprehension, lower levels of anxiety, and higher levels of mindfulness than [those who still had their phones.]”
However, there has been controversy.
Isaac Maimon, a junior at NYHS, thinks that the phone ban is “not so good.” Freshman Miriam Turgeman agrees.
“If they treat us like highschoolers we’ll be good, but if you don’t, we’ll act like middle schoolers,” she said.
According to NYHS sophomore Eitan Yoav, most people choose to follow this new policy, suggesting that not everyone has consistently turned their phones in. Despite this, many students understand why they implemented this new change.
“They don’t want people using their phones in class,” sophomore Liam Feuer said.
While the students may not find the phone ban attractive, the faculty appreciate the change.
“In a school with limited time to gain knowledge,” Jacoby says, “why not maximize it by getting rid of the distraction?”
