Cell phones have been a crucial part of everyday life for years now, including at school.
Missouri passed a law called the Student Cell Phone Ban, effective July 2025 which restricted student phone access throughout the school day. The North Kansas City School District’s policy goes further, restricting the use of all personal electronic devices such as cell phones, earbuds and smartwatches during school hours. The district’s rule is stricter than the law that Missouri passed. This Missouri state law requires public school districts to adopt a policy limiting device use during the instructional day but allows for educational use.
This ban has caused obstacles for some technology-dependent classes and programs.
“There’s been a little bit of frustration as I try to navigate a no cell phone world when it used to be a primary tool for my anatomy class,” science teacher NeQuelle DeFord said. “So one of the things that I have done that has worked, but still needs some tweaking, is I actually went out and purchased some student cameras.”
DeFord doesn’t feel that the phone ban is all bad.
“I think that even though students are frustrated, that in the classroom, there is a lot more focus,” DeFord said. “I’m seeing more productive students and focused students and less distracted students, which means the same thing, but I am in favor of it.”
This isn’t only an issue in classrooms but outside of them, too. Programs like Student Council use phones to keep people in the know about events and changes.
“The phone policy makes it very hard, especially just for my job,” Student Council historian Aarylin Holt said. “I kind of have to get a pass in order to do stuff, and a lot of my posts have to be later than when they need to be posted. It makes it a lot more difficult.”
Holt said it isn’t just an issue in cocurricular programs but in regular classwork as well.
“I also think it makes it very difficult within classes as well,” Holt said. She said it makes it harder to submit paper assignments. Teachers often have students do work on paper, take a photo of it and submit it to Canvas. She said this causes students to have to wait until they get home to actually submit the work.
The ban has caused issues for curricular, cocurricular and extracurricular programs and students. Another program that typically used phones is the theater program.
“It’s harder to, for example, improv for class, and I really wanted to take photos to post to promote Improv Night, and it just limits the amount of things I am able to promote for the class,” theater marketing lead senior Audrey Spiek said.
The phone ban continues to impact classes and programs. While teachers are noticing more focus in students, it posed obstacles for technology-dependent classes and programs.
