Banned from school? Teens picture life without cellphones

Imagine starting your senior year of high school as the new kid. Everyone else has friends and you are a stranger, adjusting to unfamiliar faces in an unfamiliar place.

For Nahila Abdoulkarim, 18, having her cellphone in the hallways of Franklin High School makes it a little easier. During passing periods between classes, she listens to music. At lunch, she texts with old friends.

“If I’m able to converse with people, obviously, it’s great, but it’s easier for me to go through day by day without feeling uncomfortable or awkward,” Abdoulkarim said. “[My phone] definitely allows me to be in my zone … to not think of my surroundings and be affected by my environment as much.”

When she was younger, her peers made her feel like an outcast because she wore a hijab; she said they even tried to rip it off her on the bus once.

“I think for me it is emotional, and there’s obviously a hint of safety,” Abdoulkarim said. “I get really anxious even going out and being independent so to have my phone there is that security of like, ‘OK cool I have my phone, I’m good.’ “

In two Seattle schools, Robert Eagle Staff and Hamilton International middle schools, students don’t have their phones during the school day this fall. They put their cellphones in a pouch at the start of the school day and don’t have access to them until the bell rings at the end of the day. At Rainier Beach High School, students can’t use their phones during class and passing periods but get to use them at lunch. At Garfield High School, students store their phones in cubbies during class but can use them in the hallways between classes and at lunch.

While the status quo unfairly burdens teachers who have to spend more time policing than teaching, the outright ban is ostensibly a paradigm shift for teens who have grown up with devices that have helped regulate their emotions since they were babies.

“Social media is embedded into [students’] social lives so taking that away or drastically limiting it is going to feel shocking to teens,” said Katie Davis, an associate professor at University of Washington’s Information School. “It is an extremely difficult situation.”

In August, Washington state Superintendent Chris Reykdal asked districts to talk to their communities and determine the best plan to restrict cellphone use in class by the start of the 2025-26 school year. In states like Florida and Indiana, the statewide change is more drastic — legislation has been passed that severely restricts cellphone use during the school day.

In Seattle, a district spokesperson said all schools have some form of “away for the day/no cellphone” policy except for Bailey Gatzert Elementary and Nova High School. But many schools remain with the general rule that students shouldn’t use their phones in class but can use them freely in the hallways between classes and at lunch.

Melinda Vo, 16, got her first iPad when she was 5 years old and felt an emotional connection to it. In part because it is where she connects with friends who play the same online games as her.

“I feel a lot safer knowing where it is, knowing I have it with me. I feel my connection is very deep,” said Vo, a junior at Franklin High. “If something were to happen to it, I would feel a big strain in my heart … I would feel like something would be gone. I feel like I’m just so connected to it, it is a very big safe place for me.”

Brent Jones, superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, said the district supports the schools piloting cellphone bans and other phone-free policies. SPS will monitor how these policies work and possibly make system-wide recommendations after the district’s winter break. SPS could act earlier, if the bans are not cumbersome or hard to implement, he said.

This summer lawmakers in the U.S. Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act, which would require social media companies to limit harmful content for teens. Attorneys general across the country, including Washington, filed a federal lawsuit accusing Meta of intentionally prioritizing profits over teens’ health, and SPS filed its own lawsuit against social media companies in 2023.

“There’s definitely a will to change things,” said Lucía Magis-Weinberg, an assistant professor in the University of Washington’s department of psychology. Her team hopes to partner with Robert Eagle Staff and any other schools across the state implementing new cellphone policies to study the ban’s impacts.

The UW study will ask students, school staff and families to complete questionnaires about their perceptions of the new policies. The researchers also want to gather focus groups and possibly analyze district records on discipline data.

Magis-Weinberg said teachers like the ban because they spend less time telling students to put their phones away, but parents who are concerned about safety are very resistant.

The Seattle Times sat down with teens to see how they feel about their phones:

Student answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Phuoc Nguyen, 16, Franklin High School

Daily average phone use: 1 hour, 53 minutes

Age received phone: elementary school

What do you do on your phone that makes you feel bad?

Ironically, it comes from some of the same apps like Instagram. There are times where I catch myself scrolling for too long and when I realize it, I’m like “Oh, that’s not a great feeling.” I definitely did waste my time that could’ve been put into better things. It feels like I’ve been robbed and I did it to myself. No matter if I scroll too much or not, I compare myself to other people on the platform in terms of skill or appearance or anything really and that also takes my mood down. My productivity and motivation go down as well. I just don’t want to do anything that day. I would probably just want to go to sleep.

Emma Tovar, 17, Evergreen High School

Daily average phone use: 8 hours, 22 minutes

Age received phone: sixth grade

What do you think about the bell-to-bell, no-phone rules?

I get where the school is coming from and I understand why they would want to input a rule like that, but I really don’t like it. I have pretty strict parents that are always checking up on me. I have some friends who have different home lives and maybe their parents are trying to get a hold of them or maybe your friends are in a weird situation and they want to text you.

Phones are tools and they are still kind of relatively new. We need to be mindful of how we use them. I try really hard to not use it in class and I wish my classmates would do it too. It is annoying when the teacher has to stop the class to tell someone to get off their phone. I feel like we’re at the age that we should already know better. I think in the future we probably won’t have this problem but because smartphones are still relatively new we still have this problem.

Shae Dooley, 15, Peninsula High School

Daily average phone use: 1 hour, 5 minutes

Age received phone: eighth grade

Do you ever set limits on yourself?

My mom does have a time limit on my phone. Normally it turns off at 10 p.m. and it turns on at 6 a.m. There is a four-hour time limit and I also set an hour on Google just so I’m aware how much time I’ve spent on there. Normally I watch YouTube. For theater, sometimes we have to look at videos, like we have to do accents for the play right now, so I would watch a lot of those videos. The limit is to make sure I don’t get off track or go into a spiral. It reminds me how much time I’ve spent there. It helps me from procrastinating. It just keeps me accountable.

Melinda Vo, 16, Franklin High School

Daily average phone use: 3 hours, 6 minutes

Age received phone: fifth grade

What do you do on your phone that makes you happy?

The main thing is being on Instagram and texting my friends, updating them throughout my day is fun. Knowing how they are doing makes me feel like they are there next to me. I don’t have classes with any of my main friend group. It makes me sad. So being able to see their text messages and everyone talking makes me feel like I’m at least caught up and maybe I can help cheer them up.

Richard Ramirez, 17, Evergreen High School

Daily average phone use: 3 hours, 46 minutes

Age received phone: sixth grade

What do you think about the bell-to-bell, no-phone rules?

It’s a nice gesture to pay attention more in class and I understand where the teachers are coming from. It’s like a job, if you are spending more time on your phone than working then your boss, which I’ll say is the teacher, is going to fire you. For school, it would be more like detention or suspension or something like that. School I would say is preparing you for the real world. But you also have to understand the safety that comes with it. We just saw the shooting in Georgia. If an emergency were to come like that I would want to call my parents. If teachers take the phone then it’s like where do we go from there? We have no communication with family, with police.

I would say during lesson time, learning time, put the phone away, listen, enjoy being there in that class. Because you aren’t going to have class, the same lesson after that. I see it in both ways. I see why teachers would want to take phones but it is just not necessary. During lunch that is our free time, that is when we relax our brains.

Leah Schmidt, 15, Peninsula High School

Daily average phone use: 7 hours, 18 minutes

Age received phone: fifth grade

What do you think about the bell-to-bell, no-phone rules?

I think it’s unsafe. A couple days ago we had a lockdown at the school. If I wasn’t able to text my parents I would’ve started freaking out. And if I wasn’t able to text my friends to see if they were OK I would have really been stressing. It feels really good to know that my mom knows what’s going on and she knows that it could become an unsafe situation and she is ready to be there.

If I have a problem throughout the day and I’m starting to get really stressed I find myself wanting to text my mom or text a friend to help with homework or something. I think it’s really important. It’s so normal in today’s world to have a phone that I think it would do more damage to not have a phone.

Nahila Abdoulkarim, 18, Franklin High School

Daily average phone use: 7 hours, 18 minutes

Age received phone: sixth grade

What do you think about the bell-to-bell no phone rules?

I feel every school should be flexible with their students. I know we are very stubborn with our phones but for a lot of these kids their phones are a motivation as much as it is a distraction it also keeps them going. Some kids might be in really bad situations and they need that phone to respond.

I don’t believe these rules will last. If there are kids who are having such a problem with their phone, why don’t we create a program for them to help show the kid that you aren’t being punished but we are trying to help you figure this out, help them learn self-discipline and self-control? Once they see that it is actually helping them, they will turn around quickly. Have some hope in your students.