Student cell phone usage was the topic of a long discussion Tuesday during the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees meeting. District officials said they are considering a new policy limiting or banning student cell phone use in schools to be imposed during the second semester of this school year.
According to Board President Beth Smith, the agenda item was intentionally planned as discussion only, without action taken, so the board could hear from WCSD staff and the community prior to making any decisions.
Tiffany McMaster, deputy superintendent, provided information to trustees on potential policies that other schools have taken nationwide and issues that have arisen following their implementation.
Across the state and the country, restrictions have recently been implemented at schools, ranging in severity from limiting cell phone use in classrooms only to banning phones on school property altogether.
This school year, the Carson City and Clark County school districts have both limited cell phone usage on school property for middle and high school students.
In both cases, students are required to use phone pouches while on school grounds. In Clark County, the pouches block cell signals but do not lock. In Carson City, the pouches lock but can be unlocked by staff in cases of emergencies.
According to McMaster, WCSD already has a regulation stating that phones and personal electronic devices should be turned off unless they’re being used for instructional purposes.
Phones distract from learning, worsen mental health
McMaster said the main reason the district—as well as parents and caregivers—are looking into restricting student cell phone usage is due to its negative impact on mental health. According to multiple studies, these impacts can range from reduced sleep and poor cognitive processing to low self-esteem and suicidal ideation.
During the 2023-24 school year, there were 18 documented incidents of cyberbullying, and 249 instances of technology violations, 205 of which occurred in the classroom.
McMaster clarified that these numbers are only for major violations and may not provide a full picture of the issue. She said many behavior issues involving technology could be coded differently, depending on how the issue escalated.
“I fully acknowledge this [data] may not paint the full picture because it’s very complex,” McMaster said. “There is evidence to show that the effects may have a greater impact on girls.”
The complexity of the issue is also highlighted in data from the U.S. Department of Education showing that while cell phones have a negative impact on mental health, schools with cell phone bans have increased reports of cyberbullying.
Smith said that the district needs to make parents its partners in helping students navigate the use of their devices.
McMaster said that cell phones also contribute to the spread of misinformation about lockdowns or lockdown drills, which frightens parents and impedes law enforcement response times.
However, Trustee Joe Rodriguez said that the district needs to be better at communicating with parents so they don’t receive text messages from their students saying “Code Red” without any context from the school itself.
“It sounds like some of the things you’re pointing out are things we as a district need to be doing better,” Rodriguez said. “Such as a code red drill. We need to let our parents and guardians know when there’s a drill so that when little Timmy says ‘Code Red,’ parents know that this is a drill ahead of time.”
Rodriguez said the district should also be holding students accountable rather than blaming cell phones.
“I have a feeling this is trying to paint a picture like [banning cell phones] is going to solve all our problems,” Rodriguez said. “I’m sorry but I think cell phones are here, and we should be promoting an environment of how and when it’s appropriate and healthy to use them.”
Rodriguez said that cell phone overconsumption is a parental, societal and cultural issue that schools should teach students to handle rather than ban.
He said before any decisions take place, parents need to be brought into the discussion on what they think about a potential phone ban.
McMaster agreed and said that the most successful implementations across the country have been in districts that have engaged with parents prior to rolling out a new phone policy.
Trustee Colleen Westlake said power struggles between teachers and students are taking up instruction time, and whatever direction the board chooses needs to get students back to focusing on learning.
“We need some way to rebuild the culture of education, to [encourage] students to have the desire to get off their phones to learn.”
“This is taking up valuable instruction time,” Westlake said. “The phones are still in the students’ possession, and this is still going to cause a lot of friction. We want the focus to be on learning, and avoid any need for those kinds of confrontations.”
She said she believes that confrontations will lessen so long as there is consistency throughout all schools and all classrooms.
“If Mr. Johnson is allowing this with cell phones, but in the next class Mrs. Jones doesn’t allow that, it’s very confusing for a student to weigh in on ‘what should I be doing, what shouldn’t I be doing,’” Westlake said.
She said what she’s heard from the majority of principals and teachers she’s spoken with is that students taking their phones into bathrooms is a major issue across the board.
Learning from other districts’ mistakes
McMasters shared a number of concerns and missteps that other districts across the country have had to overcome in their attempts to implement restrictions.
Issues include potential liability if stored devices are damaged or lost, such as when devices are taken from a student’s possession and held in a “phone hotel;” the fiscal impact of providing cell phone pouches to students; students possessing more than one device to evade restrictions; and bans increasing requests for bathroom passes to use phones during learning periods.
School board student representative Annie Batavia said a full ban is unrealistic and she doesn’t believe it could work.
She also said that because school resources are lacking, cell phones are often needed in the classroom for work, but agreed that they don’t need to be out on desks at all times.
Smith said she has heard of parents, during discussions surrounding Clark County and Carson City’s new restrictions, who have openly said they plan to buy their student “burner” phones to put in the pouches so they can keep their real phones on them at all times.
“So to your point on how students are always one step ahead of adults, in this case, it’s families who are strategizing,” Smith said.
Westlake, who became passionate during the discussions, said that as a district it’s time they “take the reins” and work to educate students and parents on what communication is appropriate during school hours.
“I mean, my god, where have we gotten to?” Westlake said. “We need to be educating students and preparing them for the future—period. What employer is going to be okay with their employees sitting around on their phones all day? None of them!”
According to WCSD data, 100% of middle schools and 75% of high schools stated they had policies restricting phone use. Of those middle schools, 71% said they have had to update their policies post-pandemic, and 88% of the high schools said they have updated as well.
Reno High School pilots program
Chris Hackbush, associate chief for secondary schools and former Reno High School principal, said that Reno High School implemented a pilot program last year restricting cell phone usage during class time.
RHS created a draft policy that focused on student self-regulation and management.
“Students had the option to have their own devices on them, put away. Many teachers already were doing this in their classroom,” Hackbush said. “If they chose to hand their devices to their teacher, that was their choice—self-regulation, self-management. If they showed they needed help complying with that regulation, teachers would confiscate the device, placing it in a box or caddy system for the rest of the class period.”
Hackbush said they shared the draft policy with staff, families and students prior to implementation.
Students were told four weeks before winter break that the new policy would be enforced after the break.
“During the third quarter we had minimal issues with students not complying, and families were supportive,” Hackbush said.
However, he added, by the fourth quarter there were “slippages,” with students in many classrooms reverting back to using their phones during idle time without teacher enforcement.
Hackbush said that when it came to issues, they experienced many that McMaster had mentioned: students using hall passes to use their phones, families sending their students with two phones, using other devices such as smartwatches and earbuds to access technology and pushback from some teachers who wanted to be able to use their discretion on phone use during the class period.
Students also said they believed if they needed to adhere to these new policies, adults in the schools needed to as well.
“We wanted students to understand we are not doing this to them, but for them and with them,” Hackbush said.
Reno High School student voice representative Melis Kavlicoglu said it was very much up to teachers how the policies were enforced. She said that after the policy was implemented, she did see a shift in student perspective. 
“Everyone seemed to feel a little guilty if they were on their phone,” Kavlicoglu said. “They were definitely keeping it in their backpacks more or at least trying to hide it. I definitely saw a decrease in usage, especially in the third quarter although it got worse in the fourth quarter, which is why we need consistent implementation.”
Kavlicoglu said that if there was any downtime in class, students would immediately go to their phones, “which is not what we want.”
When the policy was implemented, Kavlicoglu said students felt “annoyed” because the “why” of the policy wasn’t properly communicated to students.
“We need to communicate that phones are bad for your mental health, that we’re here to learn and not to snap your friends in AP psych or whatever,” Kavlicoglu said.
However, she said, she noticed students growing from the policy and becoming better at self-regulating.
“It’s tricky because you don’t want them on their phones, but when you take it away, they’re upset because it’s something they own, that their parents pay for or they pay for, and they think ‘it’s my belonging, not yours,’” Kavlicoglu said. “That’s why I like the ‘keep it in your backpack’ mindset. Out of sight out of mind.”
Kavlicoglu said what it really comes down to is there is a lack of a desire to learn from a large portion of the student population.
“I feel bad for our teachers—it’s like they need to be entertainers because they’re competing with TikTok.”
“They’re just there to get their credits and graduate, but they don’t really care about what they’re learning,” Kavlicoglu said. “We need some way to rebuild the culture of education, to [encourage] students to have the desire to get off their phones to learn.”
Kavlicoglu also suggested that students be able to exchange their phones during class time for a fidget toy or paper to doodle on during a lecture.
“That way it’s a fair trade instead of just your teacher taking [your phone] away,” Kavlicoglu said.
Finn Smith, also a Reno High student representative, said that human beings cannot multitask, no matter what we tell ourselves. He said studies show that having a phone, even out on the desk, increases anxiety. Having students keep their phones in a backpack or a pocket is important not only for instruction time but for mental health.
Willow Hannity, president of the Reno High’s parent booster club, said she has seen firsthand how the policy has positively affected her two students, who said how much easier it was to focus without the distraction of phones, and social pressure to be constantly connected to friends.
Next steps
District administration this month will meet with school principals to discuss expectations on phone regulations.
During this school year, discussions will be held on updating and revising current school policies before returning to the Board of Trustees to potentially develop a new district-wide policy on phones and personal electronic devices.
Smith said that the district will not engage in “ready, shoot, aim” with a phone policy district-wide but will arrive at a solution following stakeholder input and data collection.
She said she would be in favor of piloting a policy during the second semester of the school year, but withhold official adoption until seeing the results of the pilot.
Smith agreed with the proposition of a phone hotel or phone caddy, which would help students stay focused while also providing access to phones in case of emergency.
Trustee Alex Woodley said that while he agrees stakeholder input needs to come from students and families, he also wants to hear directly from teachers because they are the ones who would need to implement the changes.
“I feel bad for our teachers—it’s like they need to be entertainers because they’re competing with TikTok,” Woodley said. “They’re trying to teach our kids.”
Woodley said he agreed that he doesn’t believe they need to wait a full year to implement a policy.
Trustee Adam Mayberry said the bottom line is how to decrease distraction and increase learning time, and parents need to be involved. Mayberry said he’d asked the previous superintendent for a cell phone policy a number of times, and he is pleased that “we’re moving this along.”
Mayberry said they need to figure out how to keep the phones off desks, but that as a parent of high school children, he feels it’s important to retain some sort of connection to his students.
Mayberry said that while he appreciates Reno High’s self-regulation pilot, he doesn’t know if it will work at all other schools district-wide.
Batavia said she believes that her classmates would support a regulation that requires students to keep phones in backpacks.
Rodriguez said that whatever they choose, it needs to be district-wide and well thought out, with input from parents, students and staff.
