No cellphone ban at New Trier; students to continue use of in-classroom ‘caddies’

With increasing discussions surrounding cellphone usage among students, New Trier High School is preparing to implement changes to its procedures regarding in-school usage.

In a presentation presented to the School Board on Monday, March 17, administrators said they are not recommending banning the devices within the school, but rather continuing an already-established system of storing cellphones in the classroom, while also allowing students to continue using them in the hallways and other areas.

Chris Mitchell, associate principal for student services, said this past year all teachers at the Northfield campus, and many teachers at the Winnetka campus, began having students place their cellphones in “caddies” at the start of the class period and then retrieve them once the class ends.

“The simplicity is to take the phone caddies that we have been using inconsistently and just make that the standard practice,” Mitchell said. “The student knows that, when they walk in, we’re going to prioritize learning.”

The new procedure will take effect in the 2025-’26 school year.

Mitchell said this change takes the burden off of the students, because, based on a survey, some said they felt pressured to use their cellphones in class if they saw one of their classmates doing so, while many also said that because cellphones have become so prominent, they are just used to using them.

“So, we’re going to remove that burden from the students,” Mitchell said.

He also addressed iPads, which many students use in the classroom. The only change the school will be making regarding iPads is removing an option for parents to allow their children to opt out of school-administered restrictions.

“Our recommendation is to keep (the iPad) a little more restricted throughout the time that it’s meant to be a school device,” he said.

Mitchell also noted that current school policy allows the administration to make changes to procedures regarding technology regulation, so the changes do not require a vote from the School Board.

The policy was created based on feedback from student surveys and focus groups, a faculty survey, a parent community advisory committee, and a survey of feeder schools and neighboring school districts, according to Northfield Campus Principal Paul Waechtler, who served on the district’s technology usage committee along with Mitchell and faculty from nearly every department.

Mitchell added that there are exceptions to the new policies. He specifically mentioned that some science teachers use cellphone apps in the classroom and a small number of students require cellphones for health reasons.

He also said the committee decided a complete ban on cellphones wouldn’t be helpful for multiple reasons, including New Trier’s focus on promoting autonomy and “teaching students how to manage that.”

“The reality is that the cellphone is not going to go away,” Mitchell said. “We’re hoping to give (students) some relief in this space to properly manage that. We want to give them the opportunity to connect with people because, like it or not, that is a way our students connect with one another, and so we want to give them that space, but just not at the expense of our instructional time.”

He added that the technology usage committee will continue to monitor the new procedure and that modifications to it are always possible.

All board members shared positive feedback to the new plan, with Board President Jean Hahn saying she appreciated the “measured response.”

“It’s our job to prepare these young people for the future, and that future is going to have smartphones, it’s going to have (artificial intelligence), it’s going to have things that we can’t even imagine,” she said. “So we need to develop these healthy habits.”

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Subscribe to The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a subscriber? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.