Away For The Day | Latest News - Joey Estes, 11th grade: “Even myself. Me and my buds used to play video games on our phones but now we actually talk more.”

SPENCERPORT, N.Y. — After a statewide ban on cellphones in school was enacted, students, teachers, parents and administrators braced for changes in the classroom this year. Each district was given the freedom to create its own plan to rid classrooms of cellphones.

Our investigation

The cafeteria at Spencerport High School is loud, but you can still hear Assistant Principal Ingel Schmidt over the hum.

“How do you guys feel about the device policy?” Schmidt ask a student at a lunch table.
“I like it.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. I feel I can focus better during my classes,” the student said.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Would the cafeteria have looked and sounded like this last year?”

Ingel Schmidt, assistant principal: “No. So last year we would have seen kids with their faces buried in their phones.”

Brean: “What do you find that you’re doing differently this year without having that phone?”

Zoe Avery, 9th grade: “I’m more focused. I don’t really worry about my phone as much.”

Joey Estes, 11th grade: “Even myself. Me and my buds used to play video games on our phones but now we actually talk more.”

Brean: “Are you getting to know people differently?”

Estes: “I’m having conversations that I’ve never had with them before. So it’s a little more personal, deeper connections.”

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Joey Estes, 11th grade: “Even myself. Me and my buds used to play video games on our phones but now we actually talk more.”

Our investigation

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