Phones have become the ultimate double-edged sword in high schools. On one hand, schools want to reduce distractions and help students stay focused in class. However, the new policy forcing us to lock our phones in lockers from bell to bell does not teach us responsibility. Instead, it sends a message to the students that the school officials are simply postponing the problem with phone use for students to face later on.
When we arrive on college campus, there will be no lockers to store our phones nor teachers to take them away. After graduation, the training wheels come off. This policy is far from helping us with reality. Instead, schools continue to seclude us in a bubble we are already in, making us feel even more isolated from the outside world.
Seniors specifically deserve better. We are about to manage our schedules, finances and futures. If seniors can drive, vote and apply to college, aren’t we able to handle a phone in our pockets?
What’s frustrating is the lack of recognition Staples students receive. We are ranked number one in the state, and that didn’t happen by accident. It happened because we are driven, capable and serious about our futures. If you’re a Staples student, you have already experienced the pressures of grades, GPA, and standardized tests. We have proven ourselves time and time again, yet instead of being acknowledged, we are grouped in with the rest of the nation’s high schoolers, even though Staples is different and more challenging than most schools in the country.
From my understanding, the policy hasn’t helped anyone. The school has spent money fixing nearly 700 lockers just to enforce a rule that students aren’t guaranteed to use. In my four years at Staples, I have rarely seen phones cause major disruption in class. When teachers simply ask us to put them away-we do. What we do not need is a system built on restriction, all we need are rules.
Why should staples follow the crowd when the student body has proved to be different? We are the top-ranked school in the state not because we follow , but because we lead with ambition and resilience. Staples High School should stop viewing us as part of the majority and start recognizing us as the minority- students who consistently rise above the norm and deserve a policy that reflects that.
