The new phone policy issued and officially changed in our Student Handbook by the Head of School, Julianna Puente, is a heavy disruption in our daily lives and brings up many spoken and written concerns from both students and parents.

By taking away our phones, especially from high school students (some of which are legal adults), the policy is taking away a crucial part of our day-to-day lives. Generation Z has been the first generation to be raised on the internet, and the first generation to be raised on smart devices, such as smartphones and smartwatches. It is an integral part of our lives and has helped many of us be able to socialize and communicate with others, make lasting memories through photos, gain knowledge that previous generations couldn't get a hold of through quick searches, and help us discover our own sense of personal being. The concerns about phones being a distraction during class should be dealt with by individual teachers, due to their own preferences of how they teach their class and how they wish to allow students to use their devices.

Academy tuition is over $28,00 per year. With this, students should be allowed to live their lives at the Academy as comfortably as possible. By stepping forward in making a change on this ban, it could be a step towards a better future in which we as a student body and Academy parents shape the issues we see at the Academy. We're always taught at the Academy to fight for what we see as right, and this is just the stepping stone to a larger foundation in our lives.