Cell Phone Ban

On everyone’s respective first day of school, we all sat in the gym with our grade and heard our principal state the new cell phone policy for the high school. Last year, the policy for our cell phones was to keep them away during classes; everything else was fair game. We could check our phones during passing periods and lunch as needed.

Now, however, our new cell phone policy for this school year restricts the use of cell phones for students from 8:15 AM to 2:50 PM. Students are now not allowed to check their cell phones during passing periods or during lunch. Teachers are now enforcing this new cell phone policy.

The state of Ohio has restricted the use of cell phones for the entire school day; however, this does not go into effect until January 1st, 2026. Until then, schools are allowed to create their own cell phone policy, but this does not come without its conditions: if public high schools are willing to create their own cell phone policy, they must do so before September 30th, 2025, and must make the guidelines of the policy accessible to everyone, preferably through the school's website. If the school chooses to create its own cell phone policy after September 30th, it must have a board meeting to establish the guidelines of the policy, and again make those guidelines accessible to all. Regardless of the cell phone policy different public high schools adopt in Ohio, they must comply with the state-mandated cell phone policy by January 1st. 

It is not January 1st yet, so Loveland had the opportunity to create its own cell phone policy. The cell phone policy Loveland chose to adopt is the same cell phone policy that must go into effect for all public high schools in Ohio, so there is nothing we will need to adjust to when we come back from winter break this year. LHS has chosen to adopt this new cell phone policy, even though it was not mandatory, before January, in order to get students in the habit of being off their phones.

Nevertheless, there are certain exceptions to this ban on our phones. The most common exception we are going to see in the cell phone ban is students being allowed to use their phones to monitor any medical issue they may have. There is also the possibility of circumstantial exceptions to cell phone use during prohibited times, typically when using a cell phone is for a short period of time, such as setting a password or texting a parent.

Overall, the actual cell phone ban that is mandated by state law does not go into effect until we come back from winter break. However, our administration has decided to create its own policy, which is verbatim to the one Ohio has mandated to get us students adjusted to the ban before January.