Mountain Middle School in Durango, Colorado, banned cellphones from classrooms a dozen years ago.
Principal and executive director Shane Voss recalled at the time the constant stream of text messages and snapping of photos were too much to tolerate.
“It was already a massive distraction before that, in 2010,” he told The Epoch Times. “All of the sudden, everyone’s got a camera in their pocket.”
Prior to the start of the 2012–2013 academic year, Voss asked his faculty if anyone could think of a reason to justify students having their phone in the classroom. Not a single hand went up.
With that, a policy took effect requiring phones to be turned off and placed inside backpacks until the students exited the building at the end of the school day. The principal can count the number of total infractions during the policy’s history on one hand….