As Highland emphasizes the no cell phone policy, students have two choices: either reluctantly give up their phones or become a master at hiding them.
As teachers and the safety team at Highland are walking around the hallways, cell phones are in their sights. Michelle Bombard and Jon Price, the safety team at Highland, monitor the hallways for phones and make sure students are in class.
The Salt Lake City School District board policy about cell phones in schools explains how students and teachers are supposed to monitor phones. It talks about how students should not have their phones in hand during school hours unless instructed by a teacher. But it specifically says that students may not take their phone with them when using a hall pass.
Students are constantly reminded to put their phones away by teachers and even are reminded in the morning announcements. Limiting the use of phones at Highland has been a goal of the administration for academic purposes and safety.
“Kids forget they are supposed to be in class. They get looking at their phones and text their friends and get their friends out of class to meet up,” Bombard said.
Throughout the day, students will take the hall pass and their phones into the hallways.
The staff at Highland has put a special emphasis on limiting phones in the hallway. Phones in the hallway often lead to students texting about skipping class. One of the most common places students are caught skipping is at Sugarhouse Park.
Tyler Venema, the school resource officer explained that cell phones in the hall and activity in Sugarhouse Park are directly related.
“They tried to stop that (students in the park) by enforcing some policies here at the school that would decrease criminal activity over there,” Venema said. “We do not want any of the stuff that happens outside of the school to come inside the school.”
The park is a place that students go frequently during class time to skip and get away from teachers and security. Students do not only go there to skip class, often there are students doing drugs, fighting, or damaging the park property.
The employees and managers of the park have started to call and notify the police when students are in the park doing drugs or fighting. The police are supposed to dispatch and get the students back to school.
Venema and other officials at Highland do not want the things that happen in the park to return back to the school.
“We do not want anybody doing drugs inside the school. We could have medical issues as somebody is using drugs, they might overdose here,” Venema said. “We do not want that stuff happening in the school.”
With Highland in such close proximity to the park, students use it as a way to escape the watch of teachers and administrators. Criminal activity in the park is much higher than criminal activity at the school. Bombard believes that students need to be in the school to be safe.
“When there are fights in the park, if you are not here, I can’t keep you safe,” Bombard said. “We have had people go to the park and come back bloody. They have no business to be in the park.”
This year, to prevent movement to and from the park, the staff has been trying to stop the usage of cell phones in the hallway. Venema believes that since Highland uses a stricter cell phone policy, students have been going to the park less.
As the school year continues, administration will continue to stop and limit the use of cell phones because of safety concerns.
“Cell phones are a huge distraction. We don’t need these. We can get through a whole day without a cell phone,” Bombard said.
