Starting Aug. 25, in the new 2025-26 school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) instituted a new bell-to-bell ban on cellphones as well as other electronic devices for all grades, from kindergarten to twelfth grade, under the updated Cell Phone and Personal Mobile Device Regulation (COG-RA). Should students violate the ban, teachers and educators have been instructed to follow certain measures, such as confiscating the device and more severe punishment depending on the number of offenses.
MCPS said that the amendment to the rules will help students and teachers in numerous ways. Without personal devices, students should be able to learn more effectively, participate more and teachers can teach without disturbances. According to the school system’s website, evidence proves that a lack of devices makes for a better and more focused classroom.
Although the rules have not changed for elementary and middle schoolers, who had a complete restriction of devices, it is a big jump for high schoolers. Before, they were able to use their personal devices between bells and during lunch. Upperclassmen and sophomores may find the change distasteful, but the new freshmen are taking the sudden lack of freedom hard, as the first class to witness it without knowing what high school was like prior to the ban, since they anticipated being able to use personal devices in high school.
As students who have not had the chance to experience high school and its greater freedoms before this, the ban has put a damper on high expectations. “I was expecting to be able to use my phone in the hallways and at lunch; like if I needed to check updates or text someone, I could. I’m not happy about [the phone ban]…because it’s our first year of high school…and I was feeling excited about [getting to use phones] since we couldn’t…in middle school,” Winston Churchill High School ninth grader Emma Zito said.
Thomas S. Wootton freshman Rhea Das finds that while the ban is reasonable during classes, it is seen as excessive outside of that. “It is understandable to not allow phones during class, because we’re supposed to be paying attention… but I don’t see the problem with having my phone out.” Das said.
Additionally, she argues that it does not impact classrooms for students to use their devices outside of them. “If there was an emergency, phones should be accessible for every student, because… every parent needs to hear from their child,” Das said.
Safety is a top priority for schools, especially with violent incident rates rising. In 2024, MCPS saw an 11% increase in weapon-related occurrences at schools. While measures have been taken to prevent any more incidents, there are still risks. Should another threat arise, parents and guardians will rely on their child’s phones or other devices to hear from their child during the issue, and not have to spend hours waiting to hear news about the situation and their child.
Furthermore, maturity levels are called into question when talking about a device ban such as this one. Before the ban, middle and elementary students were already not allowed to have any devices out during the school day. The addition to the ban has mainly been for high schoolers, who had long been considered mature enough for liberties such as having a phone out at lunch. But should students, some of whom are getting ready to go to college, not be allowed to have their phones?
“Twelfth graders are 18. They’re adults, and they can’t use their phones, which makes no sense. We’re high schoolers; we can drive, we should be able to text people,” Zito said.
She believed that at the very least for the upperclassmen, having devices out should not be an issue for students 16 and older. As students who will soon be given a lot more responsibilities as adults, they therefore should also be able to handle their devices in class.
While the improved cellphone ban has benefits, it also has many critiques of the specifics. Current freshmen offer a unique perspective as they are the first incoming class to see the ban in effect.
Written by Sneha Menon
Graphic by Oviyaa Ramesh