Revere High recommends clear locker boxes to enforce schoolwide phone policy

Revere High School administrators on May 28 presented a plan to require students to place cell phones into clear, locked locker boxes at the start of each class and to return them at the end of the period, a step they say would standardize enforcement across the building.

Afkan Dean, assistant principal at Revere High School, told the School Committee the working group he co-led reviewed district practice and comparable districts and concluded "the locker boxes... would provide consistency, and they would give us a clear system for all hundred plus classrooms across the high school." The group is piloting variants in several classrooms and recommended a full implementation in September 2025.

The recommendation grew from months of surveys and focus groups with teachers, students and caregivers. The presenters said the pilot classrooms report it typically takes about five minutes at the start of class and five minutes at the end of class to collect and return devices; they argued that routine is less disruptive than repeated in-class prompts to put phones away. Dean said the plan calls for every teacher to require phone placement at the beginning of class rather than relying on ad hoc enforcement by individual teachers.

Committee members raised operational questions staff said they would address before policy adoption. Concerns included how substitutes would be informed of routines, how a teacher who prefers a different approach would be handled, how to assign and track locker-slot numbers, and safeguards against accidental or deliberate taking of another student's phone at the end of class. Dean and other staff said the rollout would include a communication plan for teachers, students and caregivers, standard routines for slot assignment and guidance for restroom breaks and mid-day access, and that the procedure would be included in the faculty handbook and enforcement would be tied to routine evaluation processes.

Members also discussed the need for consistent "educator buy-in" and a clear ladder of consequences for students who claim not to have had a device or who repeatedly fail to comply. Committee members suggested creating explanatory media, such as a short video produced by students, to build community acceptance before the start of school.

Chair John Kingston moved the next step. "With that, I'd like to refer this to the policy subcommittee for further discussion," he said. The committee asked staff to schedule a policy-subcommittee meeting in the first weeks of June and to communicate to families that the committee is considering a uniform implementation even if a final vote may not occur before the end of the school year.

Staff noted some districts are pursuing statewide legislation to ban cell phones in secondary schools but characterized that as an external development; the committee's next steps will proceed under district policy and the local implementation timeline.