Each new school year is often met with new and forgettable policy changes. But not this year: some of Central’s policies have taken a drastic turn.

No phones.

They’re two words we all loathe to hear in the same sentence. Now, we hear it every day.

Central’s new policy regarding cell phones states that all phones and earbuds must be put away during classes. Some teachers are turning to “phone jail” to enforce this new change, becoming wardens of a new type of prison. Phone jails are pouches on the wall or a cabinet where students have to put their phones. Each pouch has a different number, usually corresponding to each student in class.

The reason for this new, stricter policy is to get students to stay present in class both academically and socially. This new initiative for being present in class comes from the new (Be)3 introduced to us at the beginning of the year in a SOAR video. Without phones, the thinking is, we would be more encouraged to talk to others and pay attention in class.

The Central Times Editorial Board believes the overall phone policy is a good change, as it promotes community and student focus in class. However, we don’t believe phone jails provide any more benefits to a student’s concentration than putting the phone away in their backpacks would.

In fact, phone jails often cause more distractions than they warrant.

Most of the time, the phone jail is in front of students in plain view. In a world where everyone is addicted to their devices, being able to see but not interact with a phone can be extremely distracting for a student, meaning that keeping a phone in sight but just out of reach creates more distraction, not less.

It seems as though this is also one of the issues the administration was trying to avoid when making this new policy. Clearly, a phone just sitting on our desk is too great a temptation. But phone jails just don’t end the distractions.

One of the most annoying aspects of phone jails is the constant buzzing and chiming from imprisoned phones that a class has to endure. Normally, if someone’s phone goes off in class, they would be able to discreetly silence their device. Now, the only way to stop the noise is by enduring the walk of shame in front of the whole class to address it.

It’s also difficult to tell whose phone is the one buzzing in the phone jail in the first place, because they are all hanging in the same place. The only way to figure it out would be to individually take out each phone and look to see who’s getting the notifications, and this would only cause more of a disruption to a learning environment.

And yet, the scariest part of these phone jail is the unnecessary risk.

There is no doubt most students have thought about what happens if their phone breaks while in phone jail. Knowing your phone is essentially in the possession of someone else is terrifying because of the possibility the device could break, especially when putting the device into your backpack would be just as, if not more, effective with little to no risk.

Backpacks provide a space for us to store our phones with little to no distraction. In the backpack, we would be unable to see our phones, and we would be able to silence them should they start going off. Most importantly, we would maintain possession of our own expensive property.

Phone usage in class needs stopping, that much is clear. But phone prisons are counterproductive: all they do is distract students visually, make difficult to identfiy noise and create fears about damage to devices.

So to the teachers who have chosen to rebrand themselves as phone jail wardens, we ask you to set your inmates free. Give the phones back to their owners, and stop the disruptions and fear for good.