In the auditorium during lunchtime on Monday, November 4 Principal Mr. Puentes provided additional details on the new phone policy which will go into effect the  second semester. The meeting was open to all students. He gave a presentation with slides. Mr. Puentes presented four options which the leadership council, made up of sixteen members, two of them students, Aiden Warner and Francesca Sison, will vote on. The first option was the current policy where students would put their phones in their backpacks. The second option was magnetic storage units where students would place their phones for each class. The council will have a third option with special velcro pouches where students would put their phones. These pouches would block signals to stop them from buzzing. The final and more traditional option would be one where students would put their phones in pouches. This strategy has already been implemented in a number of classrooms. All options would involve increased enforcement and punishment by school staff. He also talked about emergencies. He said that all parents would get notified the minute of the incident. He gave as an example the earthquake on the first day of school. Mr. Puentes sent to all the parents a text and voice message detailing the incident. Mr. Putentes also spoke about the goal as being “It is really about supporting students’ mental health.” Studies have shown that use of social media phone use has had a negative impact on mental health.

But many students in the audience were upset about the proposal.  During the Q&A, they voiced their concerns about how they thought this would violate their rights, waste their money, yet not address the problem it was trying to solve. One student asked whether they would be safe because of the stabbing a few years ago. She said that there was no teacher in the classroom. The students were able to notify the authorities of what had happened with their phones. Another issue was fights. Mr. Puentes said one of the reasons they were making the decision was the fights during lunch and nutrition and that was why students would be able to access their phones during lunch. Teens can more easily coordinate and trigger fights through social media. He did concede that fights would continue to happen even without phones. He also said that if there were fewer fights instigated by social media there would be less need for staff in one place and they would be able to spread out. This would mean there be more areas for students to hang out. But one common misconception that they had was that it broke their 4th Amendment rights. The school can decide policy and punish you for not following these rules, and this is legal because schools can decide what they allow on their grounds. Overall, this meeting was informative. Mr. Puentes explained clearly on how he and his staff would implement the policy. The meeting answered many of the students’ questions about what other technologies it would affect. The new policy only affects devices that can be connected to the web like Apple watches or Ipads. Mr. Puentes also said he would host another meeting after the council decided on a policy. But ultimately his goal was “making the school do better for you guys.”