“If I was the president I would come to this school and get rid of the phone policy as my first order of business,” said senior Tanner Ruda.

In the 2019-2020 school year, a new no-phone policy at North Platte High School is being enforced in the classrooms. “It is an opportunity to put it away for a little bit and focus on yourselves,” said Scott Siegel, the principal at NPHS. 

Siegel always wants what is best for all students and is the voice behind the new policy. He said, “It is an attempt to show some kindness because it is hard for us to be kind to ourselves when we are constantly distracted by things.” 

Siegel knows that there are some downfalls to the new policy. “When you implement something, it’s not perfect,” he said. “Ideally, it is as consistent as possible from teacher to teacher but I don’t doubt that there are some breakdowns here and there.”

The concern of the phone policy came from the teachers themselves, so they are all supporting it. “I am on board with the phone policy,” said Heather Collen, a teacher at NPHS. “I think it is a good way to teach responsibility because figuring it out by yourselves wasn’t really working.”  

Collen hopes to see her students being more involved without having their phones in class. “I think the overall goal is to help with engagement,” she said. 

Some teachers, like Jason Drake, may follow the policy but have different opinions on it.  “I think cellphones are going to be part of a culture from here on out so we have to learn to adapt to that culture,” said Drake. 

Drake thinks there is good use to them in a learning environment and taking them away takes learning away from students. “The bad thing is you don’t get to use all the tools that you have to learn,” Drake said. “We have to adapt to use it as a learning tool.”