On August 23, Conroe ISD announced their plans to study the district’s cell phone policy. The change includes that phones should not be out during school hours, including lunch, and students will be limited to 20 minutes of phone use daily.

This policy is a complete waste of time and school resources, and it should be removed or rejected as soon as possible.

Limiting cellphone use to 20 minutes a day may seem like a good idea on paper, but many teachers use phones in classrooms as a teaching tool. If a teacher requires students to use their phones in class for a project, students may not have enough time left if they need to use their phones in another class.

Not to mention how it would be impossible to track the cellphone usage of an entire school. The only plausible solution they could implement would be an app to track and limit students’ phone usage. This will most likely result in angry parents and students worrying about invasion of privacy. It would also be impossible to make sure that all phones have the app in the first place.

If this policy goes into action as planned most students will find a loophole or a workaround for any restriction that is used. The school currently does have internet access restrictions such as blocking the use of social media, and game platforms such as Steam. Most students just turn on mobile data or get a VPN so the school can’t limit their internet access.

Many people in favor of the policy may say that it will help teachers keep students on task and maintain control in the classroom. It is clear that students already have a blatant disregard for the current policy, and will continue to use phones no matter what. What would make a new policy different? Regardless students will find a way to use their phones no matter the policy.

If Conroe ISD wants to implement a policy that will waste time, and waste school resources to result in no change then this new policy is the perfect choice. This is why we should let our District leaders know that this policy has got to go!