Throughout MCPS, all high schools, middle schools and elementary schools have their own unique policies regarding students using their phones during instructional time. However, changes to the overall policies for the whole of MCPS regarding phone usage are undergoing some changes, some of which could be put in place here at RM.

According to current MCPS regulations, high school students can “use [personal messaging devices] before and after the student day and during the student lunch periods.” Teachers also have their own discretion on how they enforce phone use in class.

As of now, more MCPS schools are getting inspired by other school districts. For example, the state of Virginia plans on limiting or banning phones at all schools, according to Reuters. With this in mind, MCPS has released a new pilot program called “Away All Day”, where cellphones are not allowed to be used at all during instructional time. Some of the schools that signed up to participate in the program include Rockville High School and eight other middle schools, according to Moco360.

These participating schools have incorporated some leeway in this pilot program, for health reasons, educational purposes, accommodations and in emergency situations. Principals at these schools have also taken some discretion if students can use phones outside of class, such as at lunch or in transition time.

In addition, a lot of other schools have taken the decision to not be part of the pilot program, but have expressed interest in diminishing the amount of phone use in schools anyhow. This has been done by strictly enforcing the current MCPS policies more than before and also taking advantage of MCPS WiFi in place at schools that can block certain apps and websites on personal devices, such as social media or games. 

At this point, RM does not currently have a clearly defined policy for phone restriction during class time. Even if they did, there are some mixed views alongside students at RM about the potential possibility of these rules coming into place, and of the current policies. “Honestly, I would feel very trapped from the rest of society because using my phone, I’m able to talk to my parents in any emergencies,” sophomore Callie Deng said. “I don’t use my phone in class anyways, but it just makes me feel safer in case of an emergency,” Deng said.

If there was the possibility of addressing phone usage during class with more rules at RM, these types of policies have to pass through many checks and verifications from the admin staff here. “This is usually, that’s the kind of decision that we would bring up during our summer work with our leadership team,” assistant principal Robin Wheeler said. “I think we would have gotten some baseline information, some voice data from our students and from our parents around their support of that kind of a policy change,” Ms. Wheeler said.