COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado lawmakers are proposing a bill for public and charter schools to implement cell phone use policies. Many schools throughout the Pikes Peak region have implemented restrictions or bans on phones throughout the past few years.
"I just don't notice it that's my favorite part of it," Seamus McGuire, a chemistry teacher at St. Mary's High School in Colorado Springs said. The private catholic school was among the first schools in the area to implement a cell phone ban.
Students cannot have phones in class, it must be kept in their backpack or their lockers. McGuire said he occasionally allows students to use their phones as timers or for taking photos in the microscope for his science classes.
"They understand the rules, all the teachers understand the rules and it's pretty well enforced," McGuire said. He's been teaching for years, but this is his first school year at St. Mary's.
Rachel Limb, is a senior at St. Mary's. When she first entered high school she said there were virtually no restrictions on phones.
" I remember my freshman year having it on my desk, " Limb said, "it was hard to pay attention in class because I'm listening to what the teacher is saying, and then I could feel the vibration of my phone, and so I'd want to check it. And then all of a sudden my attention is gone."
Limb said the phone restrictions have had a big impact on how she socializes with her classmates "phones are away we're engaged in lively conversations and it's so much more fun," Limb said.
Since the phone policy change in 2023, Tara Cuccinelli, a parent who volunteers at the school regularly said she's noticed a change and has come to love the change in phone policies.
"It's joyful to see these kids who, you know, horseplay in the hallways or in the lunchroom or things like that, like they're actually interacting," Cuccinelli said, "before I felt like they would be down on their phones with their earphones in, you know looking at the screen and stuff like that as they're walking through classes."
Since McGuire has worked at other schools with different policies, he said it's also had an impact on his own life outside of his class room.
"I think one thing that we have to look at is how it affected teachers as well, one thing that's been really beneficial to me, being in an environment that's pretty locked down on the phones as I see, well, I shouldn't be just pulling out my phone to talk all the time. I use technology in my classroom, but I'm not pulling it out to scroll through Instagram or doing anything like that and that's something that I've learned from the students," McGuire said.
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