Taking collective responsibility for Ann Arbor kids’ futures through

  • Phone-free schools

  • Parent screen pacts

  • Screen-wise school policies

  • Play-based childhoods

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SIGN OUR PARENT PACT

Coming soon.

All Day is the Best Way

Our petition to AAPS: bell-to-bell phone-free schools with inaccessible device storage.

  • All day. Students give up access not only during instructional time, but all day, including lunch and between classes.

  • Inaccessible device storage. Phones, smart watches, and other personal electronic devices go in locked pouches or phone lockers.

Locked pouches

Across the country, from Novi and Dearborn Heights, MI to New Haven, CT to Montgomery, AL to the entire Los Angeles Unified School District, locked pouches are improving students’ focus, mental health, and social interactions and freeing teachers to teach rather than police phones.

In Ann Arbor high schools

Ann Arbor high schools have been moving toward classroom phone bans. The State of Michigan will soon require these. How would all day phone-free schools be different?

Students do most of the work and the process is simple:

  • Lock phone in pouch while entering the school

  • Store locked pouch in backpack or personal locker

  • Unlock phone while exiting the school

Both all day policies and classroom bans reduce this

But only all day policies stop this

And that’s not all.

Advantages of all day phone-free schools over classroom bans

Mental health: Protect kids from social media scrolling, constant notifications, internet porn, dopamine crashes, and ongoing anxiety and loneliness.

Safety and security: Reduce cyberbullying (e.g. body shaming) and physical fights organized by phone. During rare but frightening active shootings, students are much safer without phones according to NASRO, the nation’s leading expert on school safety and security.

Friendship and social skills: Kids act like kids, not zombies. Their eyes are up, not down. They talk, laugh, play games, throw balls, and build face-to-face friendships.

Academics: Removing access between classes reduces “task switching” before class and constant distraction during class by the temptation of phones. Students can focus on learning.

Teacher morale: Teachers are freed from policing phones at the start of every class period. They regain time and energy for teaching and engaging students.

In Ann Arbor middle schools

How is our proposal different from the “out-of-sight” approach that most AAPS middle schools currently use?

At most AAPS middle schools, students are required to keep their phones out of sight, in backpacks or personal lockers. The phones remain accessible and highly tempting.

So this still happens:

Advantages of inaccessible device storage over “out-of-sight” approach

  • Harder to break the policy. “Phones in backpacks,” one teacher told us, “end up in pockets…and then in hands.” The out-of-sight approach is like giving drugs to a drug addict and saying, “Please keep these in your pocket for the next seven hours and don’t touch them.” In contrast, locked pouches and phone lockers, while not 100% perfect (because some kids will always get around the policy), work dramatically better.

  • Less burden on teachers and staff. AAPS middle school principals tell us that enforcing this policy takes constant effort. Our proposal will make things easier for everyone.

  • Improved student mental health, safety, friendships, and academics. These benefits come when phones are inaccessible all day, not when students are constantly tempted to reach for their phones.

In Ann Arbor elementary schools

Few AAPS elementary students currently bring phones to school. Let’s keep it this way.

To make these students’ phones inaccessible, schools can store phones in the central office in inexpensive pencil pouches or envelopes—or purchase a small number of phone lockers.

What AAPS teachers & parents are saying

  • Scarlett teacher: This is essential

    Students frequently text during class, leave class to check their phones, plan conflicts, record videos, and spread misinformation, all of which disrupt instruction and impact safety and mental health. Limiting in-school phone use is essential to supporting students’ academic success, mental health, and social growth.

    ~Scarlett Middle teacher


  • Pioneer teacher: Put away phones the whole day

    As a teacher I see firsthand how phones and smart devices are decimating our students’ ability to focus and engage in the school day. Phones need to be put away the whole day.

    ~Pioneer High teacher

  • Scarlett/Carpenter students teased for not having phone

    We’ve chosen to delay providing our 5th and 7th graders phones. They have tablets at home and a communication watch for when away from school. They are teased for not having a phone when most other kids do. Our middle schooler gets called an “iPad Kid”

    ~Scarlett Middle and Carpenter Elementary parent

  • Forsythe parent: Do the right thing

    It’s astonishing to me that a progressive school district like AAPS does not already have a bell-to-bell policy in place. Do the right thing, follow the research, and keep our children safer by instituting a phone-free learning environment.

    ~Forsythe Middle parent

  • Clague parent: It's about isolation and anxiety

    My children have felt ignored and left out by others who pay more attention to phones than to people. They have suffered isolation and anxiety as a result of social media.

    ~Clague Middle and Community High parent

  • Huron parent: My son has been in a phone zombie grip

    My son never had a phone of his own until he started high school. He spent his entire high school years in the worst of the cell phone zombie grip. Now, as a senior, his ability to use his actual voice for basic social interactions is seriously limited. My daughter, who is only a freshman and still doesn't have her own phone, may benefit greatly from a total bell to bell cell phone ban.

    ~Huron High parent

  • Pioneer parent: Let's stop requiring phones at school

    My oldest child arrived to 9th grade without a phone and multiple teachers did not believe her when she said she did not have one to put in the phone caddy.

    ~Pioneer High and Eberwhite Elementary parent

  • Tappan parent: Boys don't socialize at lunch

    My daughter says all/many of the boys in the lunch room at Tappan Middle School do not socialize during lunch because they get on their phones.

    ~Tappan Middle parent

  • Pediatrician: It's about mental health

    As a clinician I have encountered countless adolescent patients whose mental health and developmental have been negatively impacted by their access to phones during school.

    ~Ann Arbor pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine, and parent

  • Phones are my students' single biggest distraction

    Phones are the single biggest distraction my students face. Further, they are hugely harmful to mental health. It's shameful that our district is not being more proactive here.

    ~Pioneer High teacher

  • Skyline parent: This needs to be a collective effort

    My child is highly affected by peer groups, and it is hard for me to address the issue of the phones in isolation. Removing phones during school hours will do wonders for the restoration of our children’s focus and intelligence and social lives.

    ~Skyline High parent

  • It's about setting boundaries for our children

    As adults we know the constant pull we feel with our own phones. We need to set boundaries with these devices for our children

    ~AAPS parent

  • This needs to be a collective effort

    My child is highly affected by peer groups, and it is hard for me to address the issue of phone addiction in isolation. It needs to be a collective effort. Please, Ann Arbor, let's take action on this!

    ~AAPS parent

  • Wines parent: The social pressure is too great

    I can only keep my kids off the phone, if everyone else is also off the phone. The social / social media pressure is simply too great. The school board has to ban phones.

    ~ Wines Elementary parent

  • A2 STEAM parent: What's the harm of banning phones?

    As you debate whether to ban cell phones in school, I strongly urge you to ask yourself "What is the harm in banning cell phones?" and "What is the harm in having cell phones in school?" The answers to both questions are clear: there are more benefits to banning cell phones than allowing them.

    ~A2 STEAM parent

  • Pioneer parent: Phones at school keep my daughter in her shell

    My daughter struggles with socializing, but without phones at school, she could probably rise above her mental health obstacles and have a healthy social life. Phones seem to have tipped the scales and made sure she stays in her shell and doesn't make close friends, since she can always "hide in her phone" and other kids are harder to connect with because of THEIR phones. My other daughter is overwhelmed by texts from kids she does NOT want to communicate with, but feels it would be socially inappropriate not to reply to them all, since many of them are group texts. 

    ~Pioneer High parent

  • Tappan parent: kids without phones develop social skills

    My kids' friends with phones use them constantly and don't interact with their friends nearly as much as phone-free kids. They don't know how to sit with boredom or discomfort. They avoid awkward conversations and interactions. I want my kids to know how to deal with these things, and develop strong social skills they'll need for the rest of their lives!

    ~Tappan Middle and Angell Elementary parent

  • It's about enrollment

    We bought a house in A2 largely because of the schools and are thinking of leaving because of the tech policies here. We had no idea how bad the tech policies would be. We assumed they’d be evidence-based. We need to get our kids out of their phones and off screens.

    ~AAPS parent