On August 20, Columbia Public Schools begin the new school year and their new cell phone policies.
For middle schools, phone usage is banned all day, including in the bathrooms, hallways and lunch.
For high schools, phone usage is only banned in classrooms.
John Lyman, CPS Board Member, said the only new part of this policy is unifying things across the district.
"There's been a policy in place for several years," Lyman stated. But now, the policy is a main focus for administrators.
Students can keep their phone in backpacks or even their pockets, but if seen out, there will be disciplinary action.
First, students get a warning and a conversation. If caught again using their phone, parents will be contacted. The third time it happens, the phone will be taken and stored in a safe device until the end of the day, when they will get it back.
If phone usage continues past that, parents must come to the school and pick up the phone.
Without having the phones, CPS hopes students connect will more their peers and teachers.
"We see it as an instructional practice that helps us to teach and work with kids and give them real world skills," Sam Bornhauser, the principal at Gentry Middle School, said.
Administration believes that phones are a barrier to education, as it distracts students from learning and also increases cyberbullying.
Most parents agree that phones are obstructions to learning.
"From what I see at home as far as that distraction, I'm sure it would be the same in the classroom," Mandy Llwellyn, a parent of an incoming sixth grader said.
But CPS thinks it's a fixable problem.
"If it's something we can remove from the environment that's going to better help our students," Lyman said, "then we want to do that."
Lyman thinks phone usage has gotten more excessive, but he understands the reason parents would want to give their kid a phone.
"There's certainly always reasons for them to exist," Lyman said. "It's when they exist during class time, that we're trying to dissuade from."
