‘Put it away. Learn today’ | How North Texas schools are enforcing the new ‘no cell phone’ rules

WYLIE, Texas — If students at Wylie High School don’t comply with a new state law about the use, or more accurately, the lack of use, of their cell phones and other communication devices, they will be sent to see Student Services Secretary Beth McPherson.

“I give them the top copy,” she said, tearing off a duplicate receipt at her desk in a small office off the main hallway at the high school of approximately 3,000 students. “And it’s going to go in here,” she said, placing the receipt and cell phone inside a plastic bag and locking them in a cabinet behind her desk.

Wylie ISD, like all other school districts across Texas, is working to comply with House Bill 1481, which requires all school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to adopt policies prohibiting students from using personal communication devices (cell phones, personal iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) while on school property during the school day. Previously, such policies were optional for districts.

Wylie ISD already prohibits cell phone use in classrooms. Now, in compliance with the new state law, the cell phone ban extends to the entire school, including hallways and the cafeteria during school hours. 

The device ban includes cell phones and smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, wireless headphones or earbuds, smartglasses, and “any device capable of wireless communication that was not issued by the district, including personal laptops and gaming devices.”

“It’s been smooth so far. It really has,” said Wylie ISD Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Scott Winn. 

He says that district-wide, they had to temporarily confiscate approximately 200 phones on Thursday, the first day of the school year. Beth McPherson at Wylie High School says nine phones were taken from students on Friday when they did not comply with the new rules.

“It’s not just Wylie ISD,” Winn reminded us. “It’s easy to enforce because we’re saying this is everybody. It’s an all-skate, everyone’s involved.”

School districts statewide are requiring students to keep devices powered off, out of sight, and stored while on campus during the school day. Students can bring their phones to school but are required to keep them off and stored in a backpack, purse, or locker.

At Wylie ISD, students who have to surrender their phones when caught using them can retrieve their phones at the end of the school day. Repeated offenses, however, will require a parent to come to campus to get the phone. Other school districts, like Dallas ISD, are attaching small monetary fines for repeat violations.

“Put it away. Learn today” is the slogan they are using at Fort Worth ISD. Wylie ISD is calling itself a “no cell bell to bell” school district.

“The first day I was reaching, like where’s my phone,” said Wylie High School junior Julia Hudgins, admitting that it was a bit of an adjustment on Thursday, the first day of the school year. “But honestly, I haven’t seen any people struggle. But for me, we’re all just talking, going to class, socializing,” she said of the positive impact of the absence of cell phones.

“There are some people that are just on their phones 24/7, sit in the back, take naps, just do whatever,” Wylie High senior Eli Martin said of previous school years. “But now that’s gone, I see them like they’re sitting up, they’re paying attention now.”

School districts are making exceptions for students who might need their phones to monitor glucose levels for diabetes or need them to operate hearing aid devices. The Wylie ISD principal says parents have been mostly receptive and that students will still have their phones for use in an actual emergency.

“We were trying to figure out how the community is going to embrace it,” said Wylie ISD principal Brian Alexander. “And we’ve had more people embrace it than not.”

While the state law goes into effect Sept. 1, many districts have already approved new policies that will go into effect when school starts this month.