The Revere Board of Education (BOE) adopted a revision to the current electronic communication devices policy after Ohio passed House Bill 250.
Back in May 2024, Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 250 requiring districts all across the state to adopt policies that limit the amount of cellphone access students have. Though Revere already had a policy regarding student electronics, the bill’s signing encouraged Revere Superintendent Dan White to revisit and ultimately alter the policy.
“The state of Ohio had a law that said by July 1, 2025, every school district in the state had to have a policy in place for cellphones. Since we had to revisit our policy anyways, we took a look at the guidance from the state and the research it was sharing with districts, and that’s how we [re]crafted our policy,” White said.
The research White mentions pertains to the negative effects that phone usage has on mental health and the negative feedback employers have expressed with the younger, more technologically-acquainted generation. With the latter point, White found that employers seemed to struggle with encouraging newer generations of employees to communicate well or focus on tasks without becoming distracted.
“Cellphones can be a strong distraction and have a negative impact on students . . . [such as their] ability to focus, the impact on mental health, depression, all those kinds of things. Also, listening to employers talking about some of the struggles they’re having with new employees that are young . . . around [their] communication style and . . . students’ ability to understand non-verbals like eye contact. . . . What I’ve heard from employers is when younger people develop these habits [like using their cellphones all the time], . . . [it’s] hard to end that bad habit,” White said.
As a result, the BOE has continued discussing the current Revere policy and the presented alterations to it. The original policy that Revere adopted in 2019 stated that electronic communication devices (ECDs)—described as “any device that is powered by batteries or electricity and that is capable of receiving or transmitting communications from or to another ECD or person” that “includes, but is not limited to a cellular telephone”—were permitted on school campuses and were accessible to students during non-instructional times such as “before school, after school, during lunch break, [or] during after-school activities if permitted by the supervisor and between classes.”
The cellphone caddy system was a system teachers throughout the high school used to ensure students could not use their cellphones throughout class. These caddies—otherwise known as cellphone hotels—contained several pockets attached to the wall where students were, depending on the classroom, either encouraged or required to place their cellphones in at the start of class. This system was utilized primarily at the high school as students at Revere Middle School (RMS) and both elementary schools had school-wide policies in place which restricted or banned cellphones throughout the entire school day. Revere High School (RHS), however, lacked such strict rules, and the high school students were allowed to use personal devices such as cellphones and smartwatches during non-instructional time (such as lunch, during study halls and during passing periods in between classes).
“Our elementary schools and middle school [are] pretty much going to [stick to] what they’ve been doing now for years. I think you know [their rules are] ‘Put it away in your locker and keep it there all day until the end of the day.’ The high school is where we’ll have changes. . . . Right now, students can carry their phone on them all the time except [for when] they’re in a class and if a teacher says ‘Put it away in the [caddy],’” White said.
House Bill 250 is not the only cellphone-related policy that Ohio has looked at, however. Introduced on April 1, 2025, Senate Bill 158 would—in its current form—prohibit all cellphone use for schools throughout the state of Ohio. The current future of personal cellular devices remains unclear, and another revision to Revere’s policy may occur later this year if the Senate Bill passes, according to BOE President Keith Malick.
“Currently, there is Senate Bill 158 which was introduced to the Senate [that is] now in committee and that actually prohibits student use of cellphones during the school day. So, it is likely—in fact, I know Governor DeWine just had a press conference regarding this bill—that it eventually will make it through the Senate house and onto the governor’s desk to be signed, and we might come back and revise the policy again because the [bill] may require Revere to be more restrictive,” Malick said.
Despite Senate Bill 158’s existence, the BOE still needed to address the current presented policy revisions. Tuesday April 15, the BOE voted on the second and final version of the policy, passing it to a vote of 5-0. The new policy, though it does not impact RMS nor the elementary schools, will change the way the high school functions in the upcoming school year in that students are not permitted to carry their cellphones to any classes—including during lunches—and can only access cellular telephones when standing directly in front of their assigned locker. The policy lists several exceptions to this rule such as if a teacher or administrator permits cellphone use for educational purposes, if students must utilize a cellphone to address a health concern or if an individualized education plan (IEP) or 504 plan permits the use of cellphones. Specific College Credit Plus (CCP) programs—classes where students take a course through a university or community college for both college and high school credits—require students to use two factor authentication with another device to log into their CCP accounts. This, in addition to other more personalized instances, will be exceptions to the policy.
“[The policy states that] students are not to have [their phones] on them. They’re to put it in their lockers; however, when they get to their locker during the day, they can get on their phones. That way, if you need to communicate with mom or dad or somebody about transportation or anything of that nature, you have some time where you could maybe send a text if there’s a change, put it away, come back later, see if they’ve gotten back to you or not [and] things of that nature. We also allow for exceptions for students on IEP or 504s [or if] . . . you have a medical need of some sort or anything else, of course we’ll accommodate. I know our multi-factor authentication for CCP classes will be something we’ll have to create some exceptions for. So, we have [exceptions in] the policy [that give] administration rights . . . [so that] they can permit phone use when it makes sense,” White said.
In February, White visited RHS to receive feedback from the community—albeit most of those in attendance were RHS students. In this meeting, students sat through a presentation that went over the policy revisions and reasons for its revision. Then, White opened the floor for questions. Student Voices president Gabi Iler was one of the many RHS students in attendance that day, but her involvement with the policy revisions did not stop there. In March, Iler released a Google Form to the different grade levels asking for students’ stances on the policy, their reasons as to why they believed it and the changes students would want to see.
“I’m the president of Revere Student Voices. We collect the student body’s opinion on issues within the school district, especially things that have to do with administration and policy issues. . . . [To collect the student body’s opinion], I send out a Google Form with questions that are usually yes or no—like ‘Do you support the revised phone policy, yes or no?’—and then I leave an open space for the why or why not. . . . It was about 300 students [who responded to the form], which is about a third of the student body at the high school. Then, we had around 270 written responses to [the open-ended] questions,” Iler said.
After collecting the data she needed, she could now properly represent the students at Revere at the BOE meetings. During BOE meetings, the Board opens the floor to community speakers regarding any items on that month’s agenda. For the cellphone policy, two student representatives (one being Iler and the other being Student Voices officer Erika Boggs) spoke against its adoption. According to Iler, the general consensus among students was that they were in support of cellphone limitations, but that other methods—such as the aforementioned phone caddies—are viable solutions to the BOE’s concerns.
“Generally, the student body does not support the policy. 95 percent of the people who answered the survey said they do not support it. Most of the students are okay with limited cellphone usage, but they think it’s unrealistic because of how they use their phones throughout the day for other reasons besides distraction in class. Most of the student body supported the use of phone caddies that are already in every classroom, and some students emphasized how they want their phones at lunch and during passing periods and study halls,” Iler said.
Some other issues that RHS students have with the revisions include the difficulties that come with being unable to access their cellphones throughout the day. These problems include, for instance, struggles with organizing extracurricular activities or properly communicating with family during emergency situations (such as an emergency situation RHS experienced last school year that forced students to return home during the day). Another worry is the lack of enforcement this policy will have, and the possibility that it will encourage students to break school rules or—when students follow the policy’s guidelines—cause them to be late to classes because they check their phones.
“Some students were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to talk to their friends or parents about getting rides to or from school extracurricular activities and in the case of an emergency—like [the incident] that happened last year where students needed their phones during the day to get between school and home. . . . Another concern was that it’ll be harder to enforce because, as students having our phones this year, it’ll be a difficult transition to next year not having it at all. . . . It [may] lead more people to go to the bathroom during classes when they don’t need to just to check their phones, or being late to class because they have to go all the way across the building to get to their lockers to get to their phones and then go all the way back across the building to get to class,” Iler said.
According to RHS Principal Doug Faris, the policy will mostly be enforced if specific individuals continually refuse to comply with the rules.
“We’re going to work on this together. I think [enforcement] will come down to individual conversations; like, if the kids just won’t comply, then we’re going to have . . . a conversation,” Faris said.
Though the speeches Iler and Boggs gave at the BOE meeting did not stop the revisions from passing, Iler continues to urge the community and the Board to understand the student body’s stance.
“The student body understands that the phone policy can be beneficial, and we’re not completely against limiting cellphone usage. It’s just unrealistic as young adults because we use our phones in so many different ways throughout the day. We’re not just crying and complaining that we want our phones or that we’re so addicted or that we need our phones, we’re just saying it’s unrealistic to take them away for the whole [period],” Iler said.
As Senate Bill 158 continues to work its way closer toward Governor DeWine’s desk, Revere and the BOE will keep a close eye on any additional changes or alterations that the district may need to make before the end of 2025. No matter what happens, one thing is for certain: the upcoming school year will not be the same as years prior, and students and administrators alike will adjust to the changes.
