Should Middle Schools go phone-free, bell-to-bell, for students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade?

The Cherry Creek School District in Aurora, Colorado is one of the best school districts in the state. According to statistics, ratings, and opinions from students and parents, niche.com ranks the CCSD #1 for best school districts for athletes, #2 for best places to teach in Colorado, and #3 for best school districts in Colorado.

My children are lucky to have been attending schools in this district since 2015. As of October 2024, I have two kids in elementary school, one in middle school, and one in high school. I consider myself one of CCSD’s biggest fans because I love the students, staff, and teachers so much.

I am a Colorado native, a Columbine High School graduate and survivor, and a university graduate with a B.A. in Marriage, Family, and Human Development. Child development and school safety have always been true passions of mine.

As a creative and former professional photographer of 15 years, I am also a fan of the modern advances of technology and using them wisely to enhance and enrich education, business, creativity, wholesome entertainment, and connectivity.

I myself have experienced both the positive and negative effects of the smartphone and social media. I have been eager to use it wisely since I got my first smartphone in 2010. In that year, I was already a college graduate, a wife, and a mother. I had developed a good sense of self, maturity, socialization, and values, and even so, I still experienced the negative side effects of the smartphone, including addiction, isolation, anxiety, comparison, misinformation, and distraction.

I often wonder what it would be like to try and combat these strong forces as a developing pre-teen in middle school.

Current studies are proving that adolescents nationwide are in a mental health crisis. Major depressive episodes among American teens have more than doubled since 2010 (see “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt and the latest research and resources). Educational performance among teens across over 30 nations has also been in decline over the last decade. New research suggests that the explanation for why this happened in many countries at the same time is that the “play-based childhood” was replaced by the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010's. Specifically, children and adolescents began to spend much more time on smartphones, social media, video games, and pornography, and much less time doing healthy activities such as face-to-face interactions with friends and family, sleep, exercise, and reading books.

Our middle schoolers are ages 11, 12, 13, and 14. They are young pre-teens experiencing rapid brain development and hormone changes. Their school environment should be free from the distraction of texting, social media, and behind-the-screen drama, with more opportunities to learn and keep their chins up to the world and people around them. 

In the Cherry Creek School District, not all middle schoolers carry smartphones, but those who do are allowed to use them for personal use at different times of the school day, depending on the principal’s implementation of their own cell phone policy. You can read the CCSD Student Conduct Manual section titled “Student Use of Electronic Communication Devices" that was last revised in August of 2014, over a decade ago.

For example, my daughter’s middle school bans smartphones in the classroom and during passing periods, but smartphones are allowed during lunch and recess. Lunch is 23 minutes, while recess is 13 minutes. These few minutes are precious time for our pre-teens to interact with each other, enjoy free-play, and sit together at a meal without the distraction of texting, gaming, and videos (things they can readily enjoy at home after school).

My daughter does not have a smartphone, but because smartphones are allowed at lunch and recess, she sits alone while the girls nearby put on their headphones and watch videos.

Our children’s developing brains are creating new habits that will be hard to break as they grow. Is this what playtime and mealtime should look like?

The average teen gets 237 phone notifications a day on their phones, according to this Common Sense Media study — with a quarter coming in during the school day.

Schools are a sanctuary of learning and relationship building, a place where students discover their creative passions and become motivated to one day work and serve in their communities, homes, and abroad. Their capacity for growth is limitless, and yet the constant pull toward a smartphone can be a hindrance to their potential.

If a parent or caregiver needs to contact their student, they can call the front office of the school. They can get to know their child’s teachers, counselors, and principal. They can save important phone numbers and e-mail addresses to use at a moments’ notice.

In the case of an emergency, like the one I survived at Columbine High School before smartphones existed, I know first hand that what saved my life was not a smartphone, but instead a hero teacher, a classroom of students who stayed hidden together and prayed together, and the SWAT team that got us out.

A teacher using a landline or smartphone in the school is certainly necessary in a dangerous situation, but hundreds of kids carrying smartphones does not necessarily make a scary situation safer. It may cause students to look down, rapidly text, and take videos. They may not be present to the situation around them, unaware of those who may need help, causing more confusion and chaos. 

I believe that we as people are smarter than a smartphone. We have the wisdom, senses, conscience, and clarity that algorithms and artificial intelligence will never have.

In early adulthood, it is wise to learn to use smartphones as a tool for good and to become the master of it, not the other way around. For our young children, it is wise and courageous to delay this powerful device in order to nurture their chance to learn, play, get creative, and notice the people and the world around them. 

A district-wide phone-free policy would bless our children and better support the Cherry Creek School District’s core values of Equity, Growth mindset, Whole Wellbeing, Relationships, and Engagement. 

EQUITY: phone-free schools means less cyberbullying and biased content-sharing and more equity for students based on race, disability, gender, geography and socio-economic status.

GROWTH MINDSET: phone-free schools means less student distraction and discouragement and more focus on learning, expanding students' growth mindset, and the ability to discover unique talents. 

ENGAGEMENT: phone-free schools means less escapism and fragmented attention. It means more engagement, curiosity, commitment to learning, and a willingness to do hard things, which in turn leads to more confidence and a stronger sense of self. 

RELATIONSHIPS: phone-free schools means less focus on virtual relationships and more focus on in-person relationships. It means more face-to-face interaction, better social awareness, flourishing friendships, and more trust, empathy, and belonging. 

WHOLE WELLBEING: phone-free schools means more clarity, focus, and better physical, social, emotional, and mental health. Students will feel healthier overall and more challenged to succeed and work toward their limitless potential.

How do we go phone-free? We need like-minded parents, teachers, and staff who see the value in it and have the courage to say so. 

A step in the right direction would be to implement an "out of sight" policy, where phones are kept inside backpacks or lockers during class, passing period, lunch, and recess.   

Update: on October 31st, local news reported that the Colorado attorney general is offering $50K for school districts to implement cellphone restrictions or bans. See the article here.

Sign the petition now to support phone-free middle schools.

Thank you,

Bethany Jackman