Not one phone’s buzz has been heard at St. Mary’s since the start of school. 

At the start of the 2025-2026 school year, St. Mary’s new phone policy took most upper school students’ phones out of their hands and put them into locked cabinets on the first floor of the Taylor building, inaccessible for most of the day. Whether the lack of phones ringing throughout the halls improves focus or makes the day harder depends on who you ask.

Dr. Rogers hears joyful noise

The St. Mary’s phone policy has become a controversial subject, with administrators mostly content with their policy and students often unhappy with it.

Dr. Lauren Rogers, Head of the Upper School, sees this new policy fostering more interactions between students.

“I notice a lot more noise during the school day,” Rogers said. “It’s a joyful noise. I consider that a positive thing because students are engaging more with each other.”

Rogers hopes that by taking away students’ ability to pull out their phone, they are forced to socialize more with their peers.

“When you have ready access to your phone and you walk into a room, you’re not sure who to talk to, you’re not sure what’s going to happen next, it’s easy to pull out your phone and kind of look like you’re doing something,” Rogers said. “And part of what we hope to do at St Mary’s is to give you guys soft skills.”

Students aren’t convinced

Rogers feels that students have been interacting more with those around them, but students themselves don’t always agree.

When 92 St. Mary’s Upper School students were polled about the phone policy, 38% of students responded that they have been socializing more with those around them as a result, but 62% disagreed.

Many have felt more able to focus from this policy: the opposite of socializing.

While senior Lindsey Massey has not seen much difference inside the classroom, she has experienced this increased focus outside of class.

“Not many people were on their phones last year in the middle of class,” she said. “I think it was just mainly a problem during their free periods. During my free period, there’s been more focus.”

Sophomore Katherine Morgan also feels like having the phones stored in lockers has been good for her productivity. 

“It’s helped me get my work done during my frees, and it’s just overall helped me focus on my schoolwork,” Morgan said.

Not every student feels that help is necessary, though. 

For junior Abby Hibbard phone restrictions are not a new thing. However, St. Mary’s has a stricter policy than she has seen before.

“Phones were never an issue for us focusing last year because we couldn’t really have them in class anyway,” she said. “[At] my old school, whenever we walked into class, we would put them in slots that were hanging on the walls.”

She said she felt this limited but not fully restricted usage helped students to learn to use their phones wisely.

“If we can’t have our phones, they’re not teaching us how to time manage with having our phones,” she said.

Teachers see a (limited) difference

Amongst teachers, experiences have similarly been mixed.

Dr. Sorin, upper school AP biology teacher, said that the phone policy has not affected her classes for the better or worse, since in previous years she had already required students to turn in their phones at the beginning of class.

“I was pretty clear with my students that they shouldn’t have their phones in my class, so they were not generally out as a distraction,” Sorin said. “So it hasn’t necessarily changed a lot in my academic class. I think it is helpful not having it in ALAPP. I know everyone can check most things on their laptops anyway, but I think it’s having a positive effect.”

Ms. May, an Algebra II teacher, did not have a strict phone policy last year and has seen benefits from the new policy in the classroom. 

“I think it’s been great,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed the fact that I don’t have to worry about looking for the phones in the classroom. I think it’s less of a distraction in the classroom, so now [students] can focus more on [their] studies during the day.”

Location remains an issue

No two perspectives surrounding the phone policy are exactly the same, but in the poll, the most mentioned annoyance with the lockers has been their location. 

The wall beside the Upper School office where the lockers are located is a high-traffic area for freshmen and far from other grades’ commons. 

Some student athletes like Morgan complain that they have to make a stop at the office before they go to practice.

“I’ve been late to cross-country practice because I had to finish up a math test, and then I had to go get my phone and then go towards the gym, ” she said. “It was just so unnecessary.”

Hibbard said she feels the phone policy has made it harder for her to fulfill her duties outside of school.

“I’ve almost been late getting my sister home,” Hibbard said.

Dr. Rogers explained that lockers are located outside of the office to help students who need to leave school early. 

“If you’re leaving early for an appointment…you get everything done all at once,” Rogers said.

But students leaving at the end of the day, like freshman Leah Tate, have had to plan in extra time to fetch their phones every day.

“Most days, it takes me a while because I have to get my stuff, and then I have to go all the way down to the first floor, and then I have to come back upstairs just to get into carpool,” she said. 

What’s next?

Location aside, opinions about the phone policy have improved over time. No students in the survey said they liked the policy when it was first announced last year, but the majority of students said they either like or are neutral to the policy now that it has been implemented for over a quarter.

Over 80% of students in the survey still see room for improvement, however, and according to Rogers, the policy could possibly change next year. 

“Schools are never done figuring out how to learn,” Rogers said. “We’re always looking to see how we can do things better.”