Phones Buzz in Class—With Texts From Mom and Dad – The Wall Street Journal

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“Out of all people, you’d think your parents don’t want you on your phone,” said Darya Iranmanesh, a 16-year-old in Lexington, Mass. “My mother texts me all the time.”

Narges Iranmanesh, a dentist, usually sends her daughter scheduling reminders but sometimes just wants to check in. “If she has a headache, I’ll ask if she’s OK and getting enough fluid or I’ll ask, ‘How was your test?’”

She admits it is probably a distraction. “I try my best not to do it,” Dr. Iranmanesh said.

“It’s like she’s at work, I’m at school, why are we texting each other? Like, I’ll see you later,” Darya said.

In Southern California, the seventh- and eighth-graders who share the La Cañada High School campus began following a no-phone policy last year. Principal Jarrett Gold added office staff in anticipation of handling more calls from parents who could no longer reach their kids directly. The number of calls didn’t increase, however, suggesting that parents weren’t reaching out to their kids with real emergencies.

“It was usually, ‘Uncle Jim is picking you up today, not me,’ and that can wait until 3 p.m.,” Dr. Gold said.

Even before the new policy, the school experimented with having kids place their phones in pouches, and the teachers could hear them buzzing throughout class. They called it “the beehive.”

When teachers glanced at the phones periodically, they noticed a lot of the texts were from parents. Now, students are required to simply keep their phones out of sight—in backpacks or at home—and if they are caught with them, the devices get confiscated.

Dr. Gold provided parents at his school with a Q&A about the policy along with research on how distracting phones can be in class. He said the response from parents and kids has been positive. Teachers are reporting that students are more focused in class.

A 2017 study published in the journal “Educational Psychology” found that college students who attended classes where cellphones and other electronic devices were permitted for nonacademic reasons scored lower on exams than students who didn’t have access to devices.

Parents across the country told me that a major reason they want their children to have their phones accessible in class is because of the fear of being unable to contact their children in the event of a school shooting. Dr. Gold said he has heard the same concern. He told parents that the safety and security consulting firm his school works with said that distractibility can be a problem in an active shooter situation and that the best thing students can do in such an emergency is to focus on instructions from their teacher on how to stay safe.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, San Mateo High School decided to lock up students’ cellphones during the day, thinking kids were mostly texting each other. “We didn’t realize how often parents texted their students until they came to a meeting last spring and voiced their concerns,” said Assistant Principal Adam Gelb, explaining that their fears, too, revolved around the possibility of a shooting.

After piloting the phone lockup in 13 classes last year, San Mateo High rolled it out schoolwide this fall. Mr. Gelb said early feedback from teachers indicates students are more engaged during class and more social with each other during lunch. In an anonymous survey of teachers after the first week in session this new year, one teacher said, “The kids suddenly seem younger. Or rather, maybe they just seem like what kids used to seem like.”

Mr. Gelb said the school is being careful to manage parent expectations. In the past he would let calls go to voice mail but now he picks up his phone when he is in his office. “I’ve told the office staff to treat every call like it is an emergency because in the eyes of a parent, it might be,” he said.

During Mia Byrd’s freshman and sophomore years in high school, the Montgomery, Texas, 16-year-old texted her mom whenever the fire alarm went off, if it wasn’t clear that it was a drill. She had read that shortly after shooting began at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a fire alarm went off, sending students into the path of the gunman.

“I got a text from her saying, ‘There’s a fire alarm. I love you,’ ” her mother, Julia Byrd, recalled. “That’s heartbreaking that she feels she even has to say that.”

Ms. Byrd said it is comforting to know that Mia, now a junior, could reach her if she needed to. Still, texting between them isn’t reserved for emergencies. Ms. Byrd, a freelance writer, admits she texts Mia about mundane things more than she should.

“When I do text her I’m not necessarily expecting an immediate response,” she said.

Unless she’s at the store.

“My parents tell me the reason I have a phone is so I can text them and call them. You’re supposed to respond to your parents because if you don’t you’re scared you’ll get in trouble,” said Mia. “She’ll be in Target and say, ‘What do you need? Last chance.’”

Write to Julie Jargon at [email protected]