If you’re reading this on your phone right now, may God have mercy on your soul.

Beaver Area High School’s new cell phone practice is here, and students and staff opinions are wildly conflicting.

The policy was initiated in an effort to curb cell phone use during class time. However, students still have their phones between classes, during study halls, and during lunch.

The student handbook now states, “Students will be expected to place their cell phones in a designated area in the classroom during instructional time. For students who fail to comply, they will be given an additional opportunity to place their cell phone in the designated area. Students who continue to be non-compliant will be considered insubordinate and will result in detention, ISS, or OSS.”

This rule went into effect at the beginning of the school year, and contrary to popular rumor, it was enacted by the building administration rather than the new superintendent.

Naturally, tightening cell phone restrictions has caused some controversy, particularly among students.

“I think it’s very stupid because they’re taking away my ability to contact my parents,” junior Zoey Tice said. “I had to call my mom from the nurse’s phone because I didn’t have mine on me.”

Senior Owen Eastman called the new practice “a work of calculated fecklessness.”

High school principal, Mr. Sean Snowden, explained: “Through observation, talking with students, talking with parents, talking with teachers, pretty much anyone who has a place in our community, they’ve all said that cell phones in the classroom are a problem because most times students will sit in the back of the classroom and get on their cell phone, and they become disengaged with the lesson. So I proposed that we put cell phones in a centrally located area [in each classroom].”

Despite student objections, Mr. Snowden remains optimistic on how the new rule has been received: “So far so good. From what I’ve seen, having been through the classrooms, and having talked to some teachers and some students, it seems to be going well.”

Although the rule was met with some reservations from the students Mr. Snowden has high hopes for the effects that this new rule will have on Beaver Area High School.

Mr. Snowden shared: “I’m hopeful that our students will get a better educational experience by being fully engaged with the lesson, which oftentimes has them working in small groups and collaborating with their peers in order to achieve a common goal.”

Students may not realize it, but teachers already have seen improvements.

“I feel like my students are hearing the class discussion and the directions clearly which is leading to better results on assignments,” reports English teacher Miss Beth Spence.

Miss Spence also remarked: “I also have noticed more students talking to one another in the hallways again [rather than looking at their phones]! I love that.”

Mr. Snowden concluded, “At the end of the day, when you graduate, the most important skill a student can have is the ability to work with others to achieve a goal for the team. So that’s my goal. And I thought that goal was being disrupted by getting on our cell phones.”