It should be all or nothing, all phones banned or none at all.
Over the last few years, primarily this current year, phone restrictions at Brophy have increased. During orientation, Dean of Students Dr. Brian Johnson announced new rules including a new phone ban while in community period.
In practice, however, some teachers enforce the phone ban and others don’t. I think it has been dependent on the teacher and what they think at that moment, or if they care at all about the rule.
“My teacher does not really enforce it, he says guys put your phones away and then nobody does it. And then he looks at his computer and moves on,” said Carter Henderson-Cole ’25. [Editor’s note: The Roundup did not reach out to Henderson-Cole’s Community Period instructor for response and this quote likely needs more context. The student journalist will update the story after seeking comment]
Even though this has been a school wide ban during the entirety of the community period some teachers have been doing what they think is best. It undermines the whole purpose of the ban if some teachers enforce and others do not.
“Yes, every teacher should be enforcing it. Every adult on campus should enforce it and make sure if they see any kid on their phone during a community period that they are reported for an infraction,” said Dr. Johnson.
The way the phone ban was designed to work is to make community during the first 10 minutes of the period. This includes talking to your friends and peers, making conversation, playing card games, interacting with one another. The lack of teachers disciplining students during community period completely defeats the purpose of the ban.
“In my community period, everybody talks to each other , we’re all at our table, we’re talking about stuff. So I think it’s nice that we’re engaged and I think the phone ban is a good thing,” said Roman Walker ’27, who’s community teacher is Mr. Ian Aston.
Mr. Aston has enforced the expectations of the phone ban from the school.
“We can’t make them engage with one another, but we can decrease the barriers that prevent them from engaging with one another,” Mr. Aston said.
The phone ban breaks down the barriers between students, hoping that people will talk and be in community with each other.
“I think Brophy should be consistent with what with what they enforce. If Dr. Johnson is telling us we have to put our phones away, either everybody should or everybody should not. So teachers should follow what they’re told to do,” said Henderson-Cole ’25.
Brophy should have all phones be banned or no phones be banned at all. It should not be the teachers decision to enforce the ban, it is up the the school to tell the teachers what to do, and seeing if teachers are really enforcing it. It is unfair to students if some teachers participate in the ban and some do not.
If everybody did use the phone ban in the way it is designed for, the community building during the community periods would be more effective.
