The use of cellphones has been banned for all students after new ruling from the district board required more strict enforcement of the schools’ cellphone policy.

Students are unable to use their phones in any class. The new set of rules were mandated after issues with students taking and distributing pictures of tests to others with their phones.

Students are outraged over these changes, as for many of them cellphones were one of their primary sources of entertainment and information throughout the school day. Some students are even beginning to take action. Senior Sean Kuriger started a petition in protest of the cellphone ban. The petition has already gathered over 1,000 signatures from students, parents, and teachers, and continues to grow.

“I’ve gone to every lunch period throughout the day and use social media, as in Twitter, to get the word out that I had a petition,” said Kuriger regarding his efforts.

Kuriger plans to gather support from parents, teachers, and students, and present in front of the district board at their meeting on September 14th. Anyone can attend such meetings.

“Our goal is to make this like a Plainfield North versus Plainfield East football game,” Kuriger said, “We want to get as many community members to attend this meeting so that we can see a change in the policy.

The chief difference between this year as opposed to years past lies in enforcement. Some teachers have always cracked down on phones, while many others have turned a blind eye to them. The new policies this year hold teachers to tighter standards and eliminates a teacher’s choice in the matter.

According to Dean Jim O’Hara, the cell phone policy was previously based on “teacher discretion”, which was “unfair for students”, as well as causing “confusion”.

Some students remain skeptical of the new rules, and with good reason. The school has always held the same no tolerance policy towards phones in the past, but they have sparsely been enforced by teachers. Even when the school has “cracked down” on cellphones in the past, as they did last spring, the changes have been recognized as hardly effective in the long term.

“Honestly, in three weeks teachers will either forget about it or not care,” said Kyle Mactal, senior.

Initially, the rules allowed for students to use their phones for music purposes during their study halls. However, the rules were soon made more severe, and this privilege was eliminated, causing further outrage from students.

           “The heavier the ban on cellphones get, the more obligated people will feel to use them because the rule is near impossible to enforce 100%,” said Sophomore Sarah Bell.

Students caught with their phones are to face strict consequences. First time offenders will be faced with a two hour detention in addition to loss of their phone. If caught again, students are subject to Saturday School.

           Teachers have, at best, sent mixed signals to the students about the new rules. Many have voiced their own distaste regarding the new rules, even citing the impracticality of eliminating phone use in an increasingly technology driven era.

“My teachers are all against it[the cell phone policy] for the most part,” said Senior Al Moore, “They actually encourage us to go to the board meetings to speak out against this policy that is somehow supposed to be beneficial to our school.”

All of this distaste growing within both students and teachers may yet come to fruition through tangible change. There is consensus among both groups that the new rules are both troublesome as well as impractical.

“Everyone has actually cooperated well and every person I’ve asked has given a signature,” said Kuriger, “There are many students in the school who strongly disagree with the policy and I thought I’d take the liberty to start the petition.”