At the start of the 2024 school year, Greenville County made the decision to ban students from using phones. This policy reaches across every school in the county with little room for exceptions. The policy was enacted as a way to ensure students were paying attention in class and focused on the lesson. The punishments for not following the ban are immediate detention for your first offense and referral for a student’s second offense. If teachers or staff continue to have an issue with a single student the punishments can be more severe as well. While Greenville County is pushing hard for this phone ban, students are fighting back as well.

Senior Deacon Carson said< “Students are still using their phones but now they are just hiding them”. He claimed people hide their phones under their desks or use the person in front of them to block the view of their phones. Deacon also says that the phone policy is also not evenly enforced throughout the entire school. He claimed that some teachers have a complete ban while others still allow you to use it for certain activities.

Student Angel Martinez says, “I’m not a fan of the phone policy, but I see how it can bring the school closer together and I understand why they did it”. He also agreed that it ultimately comes down to how strictly the teacher is enforcing it. Angel also has seen plenty of phones out during class but now they are sneakily hidden. However, he has noticed that overall the usage of phones has gone down dramatically in the classroom.

The principal of Hillcrest Dr. Jarrett was asked whether he thought students hiding their phones was better or worse than them using them openly. He claimed the goal is to let students focus more on learning than on their phones. Dr. Jarret also said, “While it may not be a perfect solution, it is definitely moving the needle in the right direction”. The Principle also connected the lack of phones to his own high school experience and hopes that students will begin talking to each other more often, forming a stronger bond within the student body.

While the phone policy is controversial to some, it is here to stay. The hope is to return school to be an area focused on education and free of distractions. Opinions vary across the school and the policy definitely has a few wrinkles to iron out. However, in time it could tweaked and changed for the better, fixing the smaller issues that are present within it now.