Starting next school year, Illinois high schools will implement a statewide cell phone ban during school hours. The policy aims to cut down distractions and improve focus. Students at East are already weighing in on how it will affect their daily experience.

Junior Cameron Tande sees the rule as beneficial.

“I think next year is going to positively affect us because we’re gonna be more focused and on task for school, and I think overall test scores will go up. So I think it’s a positive addition, Tande said.

He believes the ban will stop people from getting off tasks so easily

Ÿou don’t have notifications bothering you randomly, so you’re not tempted to use your phone.”

Junior Jorian Banks expects students to have to adjust a lot

“Students will definitely be sad, but eventually they’ll have to just adapt to it,” Banks said.

While he agrees the ban will eliminate the distractions, he thinks “Students will sleep more in class”

Junior Kayden Davis thinks the ban will help the students but not the districts

“It will definitely help students focus more and do things on their own, but the overall test grades for Illinois will go down severely because all methods of cheating will be stopped.” Davis said.

Despite some mixed feelings about the loss of access during the day, the students interviewed largely expect the policy to shift classrooms into less distractions. It is still up in the air, whether change in test scores occur, more sleep, or less scrolls, the cell phone free era is about to be here.

Written by Junior Makane Tande, Edited by staff writers for the Oswego East’s online news magazine the Howl.