When Arkansas’ “Bell to Bell, No Cell Act” took effect last fall, Brandi Tolleson, the counselor at Kirby High School, said she supported the new state law which requires phones to be powered off and stored away during the school day. 

“At first, I liked it because it did cause the kids to focus better, to talk to each other more and they were having more conversations. But as the school year went on, I’ve developed opposite feelings about it,” she said.

Tolleson also teaches a Family and Consumer Science class and is a mother of three, with two kids in high school and one in middle school. While cell phones can be a major distraction for students, she says they can also be important tools.

“For example, I do walking for fitness. Well, they have to go to the track and record themselves for a mile. They don’t have the technology to do that because we’ve been so reliant on cell phones,” Tolleson said. Her students also must give food presentations, which require them to take photos of the food and upload those to Google Classroom.

She said the law, which was passed last year by the Arkansas Legislature, “has become a hindrance, and we’ve had to learn to work around it. But as a teacher, it would be so much more helpful if they had those phones and we just set guidelines and enforced them on when they could have those phones out.”

Different school districts have different policies for how to abide by the law. At Kirby High School, she said students cannot have phones on their body, so most put them in their gym locker, their school locker or their backpack. But students are getting creative about finding places where they can sneak a brief look at their phones, Tolleson said.

“They’re going to the bathroom, they’re going to the locker room, they’re using the phones,” she said. Before the ban went into effect this school year, “they didn’t take their backpacks to the bathroom, the locker room. Now they’re taking their backpacks, and we can’t not let them take their backpacks.”

As a parent, Tolleson said she also doesn’t like the ban because it has forced the family to work out plans before or after school.

“If I need to ask my 13-year-old daughter, ‘Do you have cheer practice today,’ I can’t just ask her,” she said. “With my older two kids, just texting them, ‘Hey, do you have practice today?’ ‘What do y’all want for supper?’ You know, I just got spoiled to it. And so that’s been an adjustment.”

The University of Arkansas Office for Education Policy surveyed 300 principals and superintendents in the state to get a better understanding of the impact of the law. Dr. Sarah McKenzie, executive director of the research center, said other parents are also concerned about getting in touch with their kids.

“There are hiccups where parents are calling the office to leave a message and the message doesn’t get to the kid, and then some kids need their phones to get updates from work,” McKenzie said. 

During this first year the law has been in effect, she said schools have tried to resolve such issues. A key challenge in researching the matter is that districts have different policies to abide by the law.

“Some have Yondr pouches, some of the kids keep it in their backpack. The consistency of the implementation is difficult. We haven’t seen big improvements in student growth or outcomes yet, but it does seem to be working for kids around the state and definitely for teachers. So, we’ll continue to examine that,” McKenzie said.

The North Little Rock School District requires students in sixth through 12th grades to seal their phones in Yondr pouches when entering schools. The students keep the pouches with them or in their lockers and can unlock them at the end of the day at specialized magnetic stations. But senior Gabby Gaviria, 18, who graduates on May 18, said that only worked for about the first month of the school year. 

“After that, people started finding ways around it. They started breaking them open. They started just ignoring the phone rule,” Gaviria said. Her classmates were keeping phones out of sight and pretending to follow the rule while finding places and moments they could look at their phones, she said.

“You sign a contract at the beginning of the year saying that if you break [a Yondr pouch], you have to pay $30. But most people think, okay, it’s $30, I don’t really care. I’d rather have my phone.” 

After having a phone with her until this final year of high school, Gaviria said she didn’t like the new rule.

“I feel like communication to parents and the outside world is important, especially when it comes to things like safety,” she said. “I think that it would be better for them to not enforce something like locking your phone away. It would be better for teachers — if they see a phone that’s being misused — to just take it or tell a student to put it away. But I really don’t think the Yondr pouches have done any good.”

Gaviria also cites the many apps that can serve as important tools to assist in classes. But she realizes the motivation of the legislature in passing the law. 

“I definitely do understand why they would want a phone ban. A lot of times it’s distracting, and honestly, it has helped me in some aspects to focus more and have less distractions,” she said. “It definitely can be used improperly by a lot of people.”

At Caddo Academy in the city of Norman, Principal Justin Neel said this first year of the ban has been “very beneficial” for students and teachers.

“I think its cut down on disruptions in the classroom and helped us focus on learning. I think the intent and desire for it is real good and one that is helpful, for sure, to help teachers maintain a focus on learning. I think it’s also good for the kids to learn some self-discipline when it comes to that phone,” Neel said. 

His school, which is part of the Caddo Hills School District and has students in seventh through 12th grades, purchased phone lockers. He said middle school students must place their phones in the lockers at the start of the day. There are not enough lockers for all the high school students, so Neel said only those who have had a certain number of violations are required to check them in a locker. 

As officials evaluate the effectiveness of the ban after one school year, he believes the law has effectively met its intended goal.

“I would say, hold the line. I think this is working. I think it’s working well. And I know from comments and feedback I received from staff, they’re overly happy about it, that we do have a full comprehensive expectation from our local school district to the state Capitol,” Neel said. “We’re all trying to follow it to the best of our abilities and do it in good harmony with the spirit of the law. So, keep on keeping on.”

Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva said in an interview last month with The Glenwood Herald’s Editor & Publisher Roby Brock that while visiting schools this year, he has been pleased with the results.

“I even had a student I remember once told me, it was in the first week of school, she was like, I have no choice but to pay attention to the teacher now because these distractions have gone away. The teachers love it. They feel like their students are more engaged,” Oliva said.

“What I find the most interesting or compelling is when you walk into a cafeteria now at lunch, students are talking to each other — they’re engaged, they’re having fun. They’re not just hunched over,” Oliva said. “When you implement a new policy, you always have hiccups along the way, but now it’s just a part of the way of business of how we do schools.”