New Rules: How Students and Staff are Reacting to the New Phone Policy
By Lore Parry-Johnson and Laura Lechpammer
Over the summer of 2025 a new Newman policy was created, the most controversial policy of recent Newman history. So controversial, in fact, that it is still a very relevant conversational topic even a month after its debut. The Newman phone policy was first created in 2024, and was used to hold the phones for 7th and 8th graders during the school day in an attempt to get them to socialize more and to stay on task. The new phone policy also holds the 7th and 8th graders' phones, although it has expanded to holding the 9th and 10th graders' phones during the day, sparking immediate controversy over this decision between students and staff alike.
When interviewing the students, the overwhelming majority opposed the new phone policy, reasoning that it posed safety concerns, scheduling, homework, and timing issues, and even going as far to say that it is infringing on a student's rights to take their devices. On the other end, some students enjoy the new policy because it has helped them socialize and connect more with their classmates.
The most frequently used argument when students disagree with the phone policy is that it infringes on their safety as students. Students bring up the idea that if there is an emergency, they won't have a fast and easy way to communicate with their parents or with first responders. Many parents gave their child a phone for the main reason of easily contacting them during an emergency, and now students cannot do that. "Many people and people's parents like for their kid to have their phone on them," says Vivienne Skelly ‘29. Other safety issues have already been instated into day-to-day life, brought up by both an anonymous 9th grader who states that, "[the phone policy] causes more issues and clogs in hallways at the beginning and end of the day," and Brooke Murphy ‘29 who says that the phone policy is "creating large crowds during lunchtime."
Many students say that another potential drawback of the phone policy is the added difficulty concerning turning in online assignments. "With how much of our school work is online, it is a bit inconvenient to not have phones as sometimes people may need to use it to log in [and] submit an assignment," says an anonymous 12th grade student. Another anonymous 9th grade student states that "[the new phone policy] makes it harder to communicate and get emails or important info." One counter-argument to this is that most of the homework, emails, and messages that students receive online can be completed with a computer, although some assignments require photos of worksheets or journal pages, making a phone the optimal option for these types of tasks.
Scheduling and timing errors have also arisen due to the new phone policy, because schedules are now less accessible. While schedules can still be checked on computers or printed out, the process of signing into MyNewman on a computer is lengthy, and printing out a new schedule every day can be wasteful. Murphy, '29, states that 9th and 10th graders should have their phones "for things such as finding our schedules easier," because finding schedules on the Managebac app takes significantly less time compared to finding them on MyNewman. In addition to difficulty finding schedules, the new phone policy "[takes] time away from lunch and free periods since it takes so long to get your phone, sign out, then make your way to the door," says Skelly, '29. Signing out is another possible issue brought up by an anonymous 10th grader, saying that when "people forget to sign into Ruvna, their parents (not the student) get an email saying they weren’t in school despite having individual attendances for classes say they were there all day." This also applies for sign-outs during the day at free periods and lunch, when it can be hectic in the halls due to everyone turning in their phones at the same time, leading to students forgetting to check in and out before returning their phones.
Perhaps the most controversial argument of this disputed topic is that the new phone policy infringes on a student's rights. Giovanni Montanari ‘26 states that "this is an infringement of the first amendment," and that phones are a "medium of free speech." Free speech is the first amendment of the constitution, meaning that it should apply to all areas of life in the U.S., even and especially at Newman.
While the vast majority of students stand against the phone policy, many students from one grade in particular stand with it, the 7th grade. Addie Driggs ‘31 believes that "the policy that middle school has to turn in [their] phones is fair, although I think high schoolers could have their phones since [they're] older." While this isn’t full support, it shows some students think it’s appropriate for their age level. Another 7th grader, Lucy Serazio, says she thinks that "the phone policy is something that greatly benefits students in different ways," one example being that the new phone policy supports better communication and connection between peers, especially in 7th grade where everyone is new.
The introduction of the new Newman phone policy has sparked controversy between almost all grades, from 7th graders to 12th graders. Between the concerns for the issues it has created and the praise for the added connections it has provided, the policy has changed the Newman environment both positively and negatively.
With the phone policy being recently extended, discussions of it have been debated and discussed heavily around Newman. From 7th to Staff, here’s what everyone thought.
Over the summer of the 2025-2026 school year, a new Newman policy was created, the most controversial policy of recent Newman history. So controversial, in fact, that it is still a very relevant conversational topic even a month after its debut. The Newman phone policy was first created in 2024 and was first used to hold the phones for 7th and 8th graders during the school day in an attempt to get them to socialize more and to stay on task. The new phone policy also holds the 7th and 8th graders' phones, although it has expanded to holding the 9th and 10th graders' phones during the day, sparking immediate controversy over this decision between students and staff alike.
Students, from 7th grade to PG’s as well as teachers and staff all weighed in. The most amount of response having come from 9th and 10th grade, the ones most dealing with the change in phone policy.
The overall results for the whole policy as a whole was an outstanding 52.2% saying they do not support it. We got several answers from yes, no, to everything in between.
Here’s what the teachers thought. 100% of all the responses from teachers agreed with the phone policy, touching upon the topic of paying attention in classes. Sara Matson, English teacher at Newman wrote that she has felt a change in the environment, commenting “students are more attentive in classes; I'm spending far less time telling students to put their phones away.”.
10 of the 14 staff responses also believe that the phone policy should be extended to 11th and 12th grade, one teacher writing the point of “Why should they be excluded?” Interestingly enough, the teachers who disagree with extending the policy are also teachers who primarily teach 11th and 12th grade. Valerie Dube, French teacher at Newman, however, wrote, “I firmly believe in the phone policy. A lot of schools are going that way, because they found that it was necessary to do so.”, touching upon the point of Boston Public Schools utilizing phone pouches during the school day.
Several teacher responses also touched on the importance of connection and lack of this with the phones. One response felt a positive change, writing, “Students interact in the hallways more than before. Social interaction in place of screen time is always a good thing!”. From an admissions perspective, Melissa Bacon, director of Admissions wrote, “The Lynch room is much more welcoming for new families.”. Overall, the teachers are incredibly supportive of and agree with the phone policy.
