Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, the District 225 School Board issued a ban on personal technological devices and social media websites, such as Snapchat and Instagram, in the classroom during school hours, Superintendent Dr. R.J. Gravel said.
Aiming to regain focus and attention during class time, a committee met on Dec. 3, 2024 and May 15 2025 to investigate the effect of cell phones, social media, and specific personal devices have on students, Principal Dr. Barbara Georges said. The district decided that this new policy is in students’ best interest regarding both social and academic engagement while at school, Georges added.
“We have found some significant challenges occurring in the classroom,” Georges said. “Therefore, there was a committee brought together to explore the impact of cell phones, social media, and specific educational devices students use.”
Observations made from teachers in the 2024-2025 school year suggested that allowing social media platforms on school-issued devices, as well as allowing non-school issued devices in the classrooms led to decreases in student focus, Georges said.
Previously, students were using a variety of devices in order to complete school work, such as personal iPads, MacBooks, and other devices, Georges said. The committee decided that it would help instructional supervision if all students began using the district-issued Chromebooks.
Since having phones can create a dependency for users, the committee decided to remove social media and personal technology from the classroom, Georges said. Due to this dependency, students may struggle to deal with the restrictions, Georges added.
“There is an addictive tendency towards social media, so [this policy] may be concerning or controversial [for some students],” Georges said.
The blocking of social media and removal of personal devices has already shown significant impact in the attentiveness of students, senior Ava Darzynski said. Many students in the past have abused the power of having access to such devices and social media, opening unrelated applications instead of classwork. Banning certain platforms has a positive influence on student learning, limiting the convenience of distraction, Darzynski said.
“Social media elimination is beneficial for [student] learning and focus,” Darzynski said. “I understand why the school has decided to ban personal devices and access to certain websites on the Chromebook, as social media is a huge distraction.”
Looking towards the future, eliminating some technology will have a positive impact on student focus in the long run, Georges said.
“I believe we are going to have greater instructional clarity, because instead of having teachers adapting to a myriad of devices, the teachers will only be supporting instruction and education on one device, ensuring that the programs are working the way they are intended [to],” Georges said.
