Aspen High School students frustrated with new cell phone ban
District-wide policy disregards student perspectives, some say
Lucy Peterson/The Aspen Times
When Aspen High School students returned to school Wednesday for the 2024-25 academic year, something was missing from the classrooms and hallways: their cell phones.
Students were notified just weeks before the new school year that cell phones would be banned from the Aspen School District campus during school hours — even during lunch, passing periods, and free periods. The decision came after months of discussion to address what administrators said was a growing cell phone use problem that derailed instruction time and increased cases of cyberbullying in the schools, exacerbating a mental health crisis.
During school board meetings in the spring and at a cell phone town hall with students, parents, and staff, district leaders did not reach a consensus on how to deal with the cell phone issue. But over the summer, the district decided to implement a ban, notifying families in early August and providing them with school-specific information on how the ban would take effect and what disciplinary actions would be imposed for violators. Students who are caught using their cell phones will have the devices taken away and stored in the front offices, where their parents can pick the phones up by 4 p.m. each day.
Now, students are navigating a new school year without their cell phones — a new challenge for students whose entire lives seem to be on their phones. District leaders said the ban will remove classroom distractions and give students a new way to socialize with one another.
But some students are frustrated that they won’t be trusted to use their phones responsibly.
“I feel like we’re being patronized a bit. We’re not being given responsibility or trust in the school, so I think it takes away trust students will have in the faculty and the school itself,” said Aspen High School senior Clare Williams. “We all have full-time jobs over the summer, we’re living independently, and then we come here and we’re not allowed to use our own phones, which have become a very important part of our day-to-day lives — not because we’re teenagers but because we’re people who live in a society that has created a cell phone dependency.”
In a letter to families announcing the policy, Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry said removing cell phones aims to “create an environment where students can fully engage with their lessons, participate in discussions, and concentrate on their studies without the constant interruption of notifications.”
Mulberry, who took the helm of the district in July, said one of his priorities as superintendent was to adopt a district-wide cell phone policy. Previously, each school had its own way to deal with cell phones in class, but the district did not have a way to enforce a single policy among all three schools.
While the policies differ slightly by school — Aspen Middle School students must keep their phones in their lockers while Aspen High School students can keep their phones in their backpacks — the enforcement and disciplinary actions are relatively the same throughout the district.
Several high school students The Aspen Times spoke to on Wednesday said they feel like their opinions weren’t taken into account when the decision was made to ban cell phones.
Senior Colby Vanderaa, who is a student liaison to the ASD Board of Education and has spoken with district leaders for months about a new cell phone policy, said some students felt blindsided by the ban. She was also frustrated that the decision was made during the summer, when students weren’t on campus to be part of the conversation.
“They made a change during a time period where there is no student feedback because we’re all on summer break, and we have no way of knowing what’s going on,” she said.
Several students pointed to the positive aspects of cell phone use in schools, and the disruptions a cell phone ban would cause. Students can communicate with parents, coaches, and student groups using their phones and many of them use their phones to check their class schedule, they said.
Information sheets about the new policy said students who wish to contact their parents during the school day can do so by calling them from the front offices of their schools and vice-versa for parents wishing to contact their children.
“I think that more people are disappointed that the school is neglecting to understand the positive benefits of (cell phones), whether it’s looking at our schedules, so that I know where to go, so that we all know where to go,” Vanderaa said. “I’m really curious how assignments are going to go because, in my literature class and in a lot of my science classes, we’ve all had to take pictures and use that for presentations or labs and different reports, so I’m curious what the school’s workaround will be.
“It just complicates a lot of really productive things,” she added. “It’s not even like, ‘Oh, I can’t be on Instagram,’ or anything like that. It’s like, ‘I don’t know where I’m going because I can’t look at my schedule unless I want to dig out my Chromebook from my backpack.'”
While students were frustrated with the policy, many of them still saw benefits to it — they just wished there were more discussions about the implementation with students and the downsides that impact them.
District leaders hope removing cell phones will contribute to a livelier environment in the schools and promote a healthier learning environment. Teachers and principals previously pointed to the district’s outdoor education program as an example of what a cell phone free-environment can foster. Each year, students go on a week-long outdoor education trip where cell phones are not allowed; teachers and principals say it’s one of the best week’s of the year, and the phone-free environment contributes to that.
But it will still be an adjustment for students as they navigate a new school year without having access to their phones during the school day.
“I do think we aren’t benefiting from perspective. We haven’t actually gone to school with a cell phone ban — this is our first day. I’ve not been on my phone for four hours maybe, and I think we are also, as young people, I think there’s a bias there,” Williams said. “But I do think it’s not just like a cool tool; I think it is important just like having a car. In our society, we’ve created infrastructure around these devices that we’re now stripping from students.”
