The Phone Ban Policy from the Perspective of a Boarding Student

Different from day students, boarding students often have greater insight into the school’s residential perspective as well as the school in general since most boarders live on campus. The recently established no-phone policy has had a large impact on school life, as mentioned in the writing of a fellow writer. However, I would like to include a brief analysis from another perspective: boarding life and the additional policies that were established simultaneously.

The expansion of restrictions on boarding life has been an increasingly noticeable trend. From closing the dorms during the day to limiting Wifi access at night, the whole boarder body has been enduring constantly growing restrictions because of mischievous behavior attributed to a small number of individuals. For this year, another policy concerning phone use was established in the dorms: for grades under 10, students must turn in their phones during study hall, and they have to turn in both their phones and laptops before bed. This boarder phone-ban policy may be derived from the larger phone-ban policy affecting the whole student body, but the point is that boarders are gradually losing certain privileges. Merely imposing restrictions does not necessarily solve the problem. Using the boarder phone-ban policy as an example, confiscating students’ phones and laptops may ensure compliance, but it does not mean that students support the rules willingly. If restrictions continue to expand without sufficient communication or discussion, greater tension between the student body and the faculty may arise in response to the ignorance of student voices or simply the growing frustration over time.

There is another interesting observation I would like to add from my own experience is on the broader phone-ban policy itself. On (A DATE), there was an incident caused by what appeared to be a trial operation on internet access concerning the phone-ban policy on the internet, putting restrictions on online surfing, scrolling, and especially social media platforms. However, boarders had no idea about this, and thus, when we found out that access to social media platforms had been blocked on the school network, we were outraged. Though access was restored the next day, the incident left a long-lasting impression on many boarding students.  

Although this article is mainly about boarding life, it contains content that not only boarders but the whole student body need to contemplate, after all of these restrictions, and whether the policies are both reasonable and useful. In my personal opinion, there is still room for negotiation around these policies. I also understand that some faculty members are upset because of students’ repeated failure in obeying the no-phone policy. Thus, students and faculty members should take opposing perspectives into consideration. Both groups should consider not only the necessity of the rules, but also the way of communication, enforcement, and reception between two different perspectives approaching the same issues.