After just one semester of requiring middle school students to lock their cellphones up during the day, Marietta City Schools officials are considering extending the cellphone ban to the district’s high school students.
The cellphone ban in the small school system in Cobb County went into effect in August. Students are required to put their cellphones and smartwatches in a magnetic pouch at the beginning of the school day, which is then locked. Students can access their phones again at the end of the day, or during an emergency, when a school staff member unlocks the pouch. Schools in Atlanta and DeKalb County are testing similar bans this year.
Researchers at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta have been working with Marietta leaders to document the ban’s impact. Feedback so far has been positive, Superintendent Grant Rivera reported to the school board this week.
“The anecdotal feedback from staff and the research data from Emory and Children’s Healthcare is so compelling that I feel like we have to have the conversation regarding high school,” Rivera said in an interview Wednesday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The goal would be to implement a cellphone ban in the beginning of the coming school year. The timing makes sense, Rivera said: That cohort of ninth graders will already be used to using the cellphone pouches.
Marietta officials plan to spend the first few months of 2025 collecting feedback about implementing a similar policy at the high school.
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Middle school students have reported better-behaved classrooms and feeling more connected to their peers, according to surveys and focus groups conducted by the researchers. And teachers say students are now more focused, more engaged, less disruptive and tardy less often.
At Marietta Middle School, 68% of teachers said they could do their jobs better after the cellphone ban went into effect.
“Those numbers surprised me,” Rivera said. “I knew we would be significant. I didn’t know it would be that significant.”
High school families have begun expressing concerns about how they’ll be able to contact their students during the school day. A petition advocating against the use of the cellphone pouches at Marietta High School had nearly 1,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning.
“The initiative doesn’t only limit our communication, but creases an unrealistically controlled environment for high school aged students, as well as serious safety and health risks,” the petition states.
But Rivera is confident the systems in place at the middle school are easily adaptable to high schoolers who may have more need to be on their phones — for example, to speak to employers or in case of an emergency.
“I care deeply about engaging the staff, families and students to understand, what are their concerns. But I’m not trying to win a popularity contest,” Rivera said. “Nobody wanted mandatory seat belts in cars either.”
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