Cibola High School is rolling out a new policy to curb class time cellphone usage: keep them in your backpacks.

A new policy barring students from using cellphones during class — lest they be taken away — is going into place at Cibola High School.

Curbing the use of cellphones in class, according to Principal Kimberly Finke, has been on the minds of school staff and parents alike for some time, noting it’s one of the most common issues they’ve raised since she started at Cibola around the beginning of this school year.

Finke added the issue of students now being so attached to their phones is in some ways a contemporary one.

“This was their lifeline during COVID. We’re dealing with students who were sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth graders during the pandemic, and that cellphone was their lifeline,” she said. “But when they came back, I think a number of schools — mine included — didn’t necessarily address ‘When is it OK to use a cellphone, and when is it not?’ ”

The policy is being rolled out at the West Side Albuquerque school after spring break to work out any kinks ahead of an official August implementation.

Under the policy, students must keep their phones in backpacks or in classroom pocket holders during class. They would be allowed to use them during passing periods, lunch or in emergencies.

The first time a student violates the policy, they get a warning. The second and third times, the teacher confiscates the phone, lets parents know and gives the phone back at the end of the period. The fourth time, the phone is turned in to the front office and released back to the parent.

The fifth time, the phone is only given back to the parent after the student completes community service.

Predictably, the policy is getting mixed reviews among students.

“It’s just going to piss students off,” sophomore Janessa Aragon told the Journal. “It’s not going to make them do work.”

Some, however, have said they see the value of the policy, acknowledging there is a problem with students having trouble putting their phones down.

“Personally, me, I’m distracted by my phone,” said senior Enock Mbumba. “... It’s going to be a challenge for me to be better.”

The issue varies in its severity throughout Cibola, Finke said — in some classes, there’s not a cellphone in sight during instructional time.

But in some cases, it’s a real problem.

One day, Finke recalled, she was touring the school, dropping in on classes to observe teachers as they did their work.

She stopped to sit down in the back row of one classroom and, right in front of her, watched a young man at the desk in front of her watch a movie on a cellphone propped against his Chromebook.

The student, Finke said, didn’t even seem to know she was there, only realizing she was when she tapped him on the shoulder.

Upon a later check of that student’s grades, Finke said he wasn’t passing that class.

“I think that illustrates some of what we’re seeing going on, is that students are having trouble getting off the cellphones,” she said. “They’re very into consuming movies, they’re very into communicating with friends. And it’s really robbing them of their education.”

There is some hesitation among school staff, who would be on the front lines of enforcing the policy.

“Rolling it out in the spring, I think, made teachers a little bit more on edge about having to worry about the confrontation with students,” said math teacher Heath Weihe, who headed up the committee to create the cellphone policy.

While Finke acknowledged the possibility of power struggles between teachers and their students is causing staff anxiety, she said the objective of the policy is not to ban cellphones outright — it’s for students to self-regulate.

Weihe added that if it comes to it, rather than allow a confrontation to escalate, teachers will just tell students, “Keep your phone, we’ll let the administrators deal with you later on during the day.”

“Yeah, there’ll be some growing pains,” Finke said. “But I think what we’re hearing from staff and parents is, ‘Yeah, this probably should have been done a while ago.’ ”