A new policy that started at the beginning of this year is banning the distractions of cellphone use in the RHS library. The only technology that can be utilized in the library are chromebooks, as the computers have been removed this year.

According to a survey at the beginning of the year, 28.57% of students prefer to do their homework at school or in the library, meaning that almost a third of them would choose to crank out an outline at school rather than in the comforts of their own homes.

This is a sizeable portion of students wishing to get a proactive start on their homework, but the inconvenience of not being allowed access to their phones in the library has left many perturbed.

In doing their homework, 73.97% of students use their phone either almost always or always. The access to research on phones is much easier than pulling up a slow computer or flipping through the pages of a book.

Technology is the path of the future, yet 53.11% of students surveyed believe there is either not enough accessible technology for them to be successful, or teachers do not allow them to use it often enough as is needed.

However, even though phones are still fairly restricted at school and especially in the library, one must not overlook administrative efforts to provide us with easily accessible chromebooks. They have even replaced the old computers built into the library with a chrome cart made obtainable through an exchange of your ID.

Administrative efforts to restrict phone usage during school only cripples students heading out into the real world, a world defined by the ever-present need to effectively utilize technology.

If the fear is that cell phones might distract, the simple truth is when students enter their future careers, those distractions will not just merely disappear. We need to learn now how to manage these distractions for ourselves, instead of having authoritarian figures do it for us.