By Cheryl Holladay, Ashley Patti and Krista Tacey-Cater
Houghton Lake Resorter & Crawford County Avalanche
This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
On an average day, Houghton Lake High School seniors Abbey Bosel and Ryleigh Foster estimate they receive more than 100 notifications on their phones.
Those alerts, from apps like Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram, as well as from email, text messages and other push notifications, come at all times of the day, even when Bosel and Foster are in class.
Now, thanks to a bell-to-bell phone-free policy at Houghton Lake High School — meaning students are not allowed to use their phones at any point during the school day, including in classrooms, hallways, bathrooms and cafeterias — the two do not see those notifications during the school day.
The new no-cellphone policy across all schools means “I’m not being bothered,” Foster said. “The detachment, it feels good.”
Michigan is one of just 12 states without a statewide policy on cellphones in schools. In May, the Michigan Senate approved a bill that would require public school districts and academies to adopt policies that “seek to limit” cellphone use by students in class. A competing plan in the Michigan House failed in July.
The Michigan Association of School Boards does not have a position on how schools should handle cellphone usage by students, but it would have supported legislation that created a statewide policy for schools, MASB Executive Director Don Wotruba said.
Prohibitions on cellphones during school are up to individual school districts, he said.
“We are not tracking policies and changes,” he said.
However, Wotruba said banning cellphones during school has been “a pretty popular topic” over the past couple of years.
While there has been pushback from some students and their parents, administrators and teachers widely agreed that removing cellphones from the school day is yielding benefits just three months into the school year. Administrators noted increased engagement and learning and more interaction among students and less-stressed students.
The best parts of not being allowed their cellphones during the day, Bosel and Foster said, are being able to interact more with their classmates and the free time it provides.
Instead of seeing kids with their eyes on a cellphone, Bosel said, she notices kids either doing school work or interacting with one another. Foster has noticed kids “goofing off” more, joking and having interactions, instead of keeping to themselves while engaged with a phone.
Bosel said kids are getting to know one another better and are learning things they didn’t know about each other.
“It was a good decision for the school,” Bosel said.
She said it seems there are fewer tardies and a decrease in the number of problems associated with unwanted pictures being taken.
No complaints
Houghton Lake Community Schools Superintendent Ben Williams agrees with the students’ assessment.
“Phones really serve zero purpose from 8 to 3,” Williams said.
Since the early 2000s, with the original flip phones, Williams said, cellphone misuse has been an issue. From classroom disruptions to felony sexting cases to using phones for threats, Williams said districts have seen cellphones used as a “vehicle” for misuse as they have become “more and more capable.”
Williams said phones alone aren’t really the entire problem as “it’s more the apps.” With apps like Snapchat and TikTok, Williams said, students have been able to communicate “away from the teachers’ eyes.”
Since the implementation of the stricter cellphone policy that no longer allows students to have phones at lunch or passing time, Williams has noticed a “dramatic decrease in bathroom passes,” which is keeping students engaged in their classes.
There have been decreases in tardies and disciplinary referrals. He said there has also been a noticeable increase in social interactions among students.
“There has not been a single complaint,” Williams said of students’ adjustment to the stricter phone policy.
Students seem happier
When students in the Roscommon Area Public Schools district returned to school on Aug. 25, they were asked to leave behind the daytime use of their cellphones.
Like their counterparts at Houghton Lake and Grayling, the Bucks went phone-free from bell to bell. Previous district policy allowed students to have their phones in the hallways during passing time and at lunch and gave teachers discretion on whether to allow cellphones in the classroom.
Among the main reasons for the policy change: mental health, academic improvement and classroom disruptions.
“Kids are talking at lunch again,” Roscommon Area Public Schools Superintendent Cathy Erickson said.
In some cases, prior to the change, she said, students would be in the cafeteria together or even at the same table, but still texting each other.
She said her staff reports that students seem happier.
Roscommon staff members had read “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” by Jonathan Haidt, as a book study. In May, a researcher for the book, Zach Rausch, senior research scientist and managing director of the Tech and Society Lab at New York University’s Stern School of Business, was a guest speaker, via Zoom, Erickson said. Rausch also spoke to the staff of Crawford-Oscoda-Ogemaw-Roscommon Intermediate School District (COOR) and Houghton Lake Community Schools.
COOR ISD Director of Instructional Services Katie Harris said that was the first regional approach in the state to share the impact of social media and, in particular, cellphones as they relate to students’ mental health, including anxiety, depression and suicide.
Haidt’s book recommends no cellphone usage from bell to bell and not allowing a child to have a cellphone until the age of 13, she said.
In his presentation to the ISD, Rausch said 39 states have new legislation related to some kind of phone policy that did not exist in the last year and a half.
“It’s really quite extraordinary to see the rate of change that’s been happening in schools across the country,” he said.
He went over studies that indicate social media use has had a detrimental effect on children’s mental health and academic performance.
“We know that kids need to have all sorts of different experiences growing up to really thrive as kids and also develop into adults,” he said, things like spending time outdoors, getting sunlight, exercising, sleeping, spending time with friends, reading books, having hobbies, going on dates and thinking deeply.
In the past, there was more time to fit in all of those activities, he said, but they have been displaced, resulting in what is known as a “phone-based childhood.”
Rausch said studies have shown an increase in rates of depression for both boys and girls.
“After 2010, things really got a lot worse,” he said.
The percentage of teens reporting a major depression (feeling sad, hopeless or losing interest in things they typically do) for at least two weeks in the last year more than doubled for both genders.
“It’s become a normal part of being an American teenager to be depressed,” he said.
Rausch said two things took place, the play-based childhood gradually faded out (between 1980 and 2010) and the phone-based childhood took over (2010 to 2015).
He said he could summarize “The Anxious Generation” in one sentence: “Kids have been overprotected in the real world and underprotected online.”
Kids used to play together outside with little adult supervision, but that shifted to solitary activity — looking at devices — even if friends or other people were around.
Thrills help children overcome their fears, he said, but, if you block risk and thrills, “we keep children fragile and fearful.” If kids are kept too safe, he said, it can create a “cycle of incompetence” wherein kids are assumed to be incompetent and are not allowed to do things, which causes them to be incompetent.
“We would go out and play and ride our bikes in the neighborhood and play in the woods,” Harris said, of her childhood.
The policy change has affected students’ use of their phones, Harris said, but, after learning about the research, “it has changed my cellphone usage, as well.”
‘Normal life for us’
Roscommon High School senior Payton Johnroe used to play music on her cellphone to help her stay focused while working on assignments.
“That has impacted me the most,” Johnroe said of not having music.
Roscommon High seniors Ethan Douck and Keaton Pratt both said they keep their phones with them and silent during the day. They both check their phones a few times during the day and both have had their phones taken away from them.
“I deserved that,” Pratt said.
Douck said the policy is “unfair” and students should be allowed to use phones during passing times, between classes and at lunch.
Both agreed the no-phone policy was implemented with good intentions, but students don’t take it seriously.
Johnroe said there are times when using her phone during school makes sense, such as when she has contacted her aunt.
She said many kids use their phones, regardless of the policy.
“Kids go to the bathroom,” Johnroe said. “A lot of kids work around it.”
Johnroe agrees that students should not have their phones in the classroom. However, she thinks they should be able to have them during lunch.
“It’s our time to socialize freely,” Johnroe said of lunch.
She doesn’t think it’s unreasonable for students to be allowed their phones during lunch, especially when kids can use their Chromebooks.
Johnroe said enforcement of the policy doesn’t seem important.
“If they care that much about it, enforce it more,” Johnroe said.
She said technology and the use of cellphones is just part of students’ lives. She said it seems “older teachers,” who didn’t grow up with the technology, don’t relate and often talk about how they didn’t need phones when they were in school.
“It’s just normal life for us,” Johnroe said.
Speaking as a staff member in the Roscommon district and as a parent, Mary Ann Marsh, administrative-athletic assistant, said that, all around, students’ communication skills have improved. She said they do not seem as shy or hesitant to speak to each other, teachers or staff. In addition, she said, they do not seem as on edge or worried about what someone is going to post or take a picture of at that moment.
Roscommon High Assistant Principal Joey Bigford said students have, for the most part, been understanding.
Students and parents were made aware of the new policy before the school year started.
Bigford said some parents worried about being able to reach their children. She said there is a phone in the high school office and parents can relay a message to a student or reach them in an emergency.
As an administrator, she does have the capability of communication with other administrators by way of walkie-talkies.
“We don’t have our phones,” she said. “We are modeling the expectations for students.”
Bigford believes the policy change has had a positive impact among students.
The hallways and cafeteria are louder, she said, but the students are talking.
“It’s a great thing,” she said.
Bigford, who graduated from Roscommon High in 1995 and did not have a cellphone until she graduated from college, said the culture is more like what she remembers when she was in high school.
She noticed students inviting others to sit with them at their table.
“It’s changing the culture of this building,” she said. “That warms my heart.”
‘Most impactful thing’
Educators at Grayling High School said the removal of phones from the classroom has also improved their ability to teach.
“I think that this is the most impactful thing that has happened in education in the last few years,” said Grayling High teacher Josh Demlow.
Keeping in trend with other schools in the area, state and country, Grayling High implemented a bell-to-bell phone ban for the 2025-26 school year.
In prior years, phones were only supposed to be used during passing times and lunch periods. However, many teachers struggled with phones being a distraction in the classroom.
“I don’t have to monitor phone use because they are not in the classroom anymore,” said Demlow. He added the policy has “improved my teaching to reach all students.”
“Students are relearning how to interact with each other in positive ways that make the classrooms much more dynamic,” he said.
Demlow said he has seen improvements in student engagement, focus and understanding in the classroom.
“The phone ban helps to remove one of the most significant sources of tension between teachers and students,” said Grayling High teacher Matthew Book. “There is no doubt that I am able to put more of my focus on instruction and less on monitoring phone use.”
Grayling schools made the decision to use Yondr pouches to help enforce the phone ban. A student’s phone is placed in the pouch, which is then magnetically locked. The pouches can only be locked and unlocked at specific stations within the school.
Grayling HIgh Principal Sarah Allen said the pouches make enforcement of the policy much easier.
“This way, it’s black and white,” she said. “If a phone is out of the pouch, they get sent to the office.”
Demlow said the pouches have given the teachers and administrators a “much more effective way to deal with cellphones.”
Students can keep the phone pouches in their lockers or backpacks, though, Allen said, some students have chosen to not bring their phones into the building at all. Stations are available by two of the building’s entrances outside of school hours, so students can unlock their pouches if they’ve forgotten.
Allen said she is “extremely happy” with how the policy has been working. She said a couple of students have told her they’re “actually learning” now.
Allen said the beginning was a bit of a struggle, mostly in showing students and parents that there are still ways they can communicate. New phones were added in the counseling office and media center for students to use during the school day.
“Parents have had a positive response to this when I explain the impact that I am seeing in the classroom,” said Demlow.
Allen said she has seen improvements in student learning and social skills as well as students’ mental health.
“I think it’s working,” she said.
This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.