As lawmakers in Springfield consider removing cellphones from classrooms across Illinois, some Southland high school officials say they recognize the need and have already implemented similar restrictions.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposal, included in bills in the Illinois House and Senate, would require districts to prohibit students from using phones during instructional time as well as provide a means of storing devices by the 2026-2027 school year. The ban has exceptions for students with accommodations and in the event of an emergency.

Both Homewood-Flossmoor High School District 233 and Orland Park District 230 implemented policy changes this school year and offered mixed views on how a statewide ban would work.

H-F Principal Clinton Alexander said when he started in 2022, he quickly heard from teachers that phones were a major hindrance to students’ learning.

“We had mixed ideas — should we try and be more engaging or should we restrict cellphones being in the classroom?” Alexander said.

Alexander said research on classroom distractions convinced him to try prohibiting summer school students from using phones during instructional periods.

He said the rule garnered positive feedback from parents and teachers, so he scaled up efforts last fall by installing locked boxes in every classroom designated for phones.

Teachers were expected to collect and lock up all students’ phones for the duration of the class period and redistribute them before each passing period.

However, Veronica Hamaguchi, a senior, said the policy has since loosened up, much to the relief of many students.“It has not been enforced by teachers in the same way that maybe admin is pushing for it to be enforced,” said Hamaguchi, who reported on the subject for the high school’s student newspaper.

Hamaguchi said the lock boxes are mainly used as a consequence, usually when a student takes out their phone without permission. She said it’s up to teacher discretion when phone use is appropriate.

“If you finish an assignment 15 minutes early and a student is on their phone for the last 15 minutes, that’s probably a teacher by teacher thing,” Hamaguchi said.

“Some teachers are like, ‘absolutely not.’ Some teachers are like, ‘sure, I don’t care.’”

Alexander said District 233 will likely have to tighten its phone policy if a statewide ban is implemented, but he is overall supportive of Pritzker’s legislation to remove a well-known distraction.

“The research says that phones distract kids,” Alexander said. “We want what’s best for kids because learning is the name of the game. We want our students to learn as much as possible before we let them go into the real world.”

District 230, with Stagg High School in Palos Hills, Sandburg in Orland Park and Andrew in Tinley Park, put phone cubbies in every classroom and established a set of guidelines teachers can choose to employ. Teachers can instruct students to leave their phones in the cubbies during the duration of class, during certain assignments or assessments, or as a loss of privilege.

District 230 Superintendent Robert Nolting said he is proud of how the guidelines have allowed teachers to establish their own policies, and has concerns about how a flat-out ban would serve the diverse range of Illinois students and teachers.

“There’s a lot of nuance, and I think when you have a law that kind of globalizes it, that nuance is hard to capture,” Nolting said. “And I think that’s what our teachers really appreciate — in the math class, that might be the best policy … but in art class or a different environment, it might not be the same reason or rationale.”

ostevens@chicagotribune.com