Often inside classrooms around the building, students can be found distracted on their phones, sending Snapchats, texts, and Tweets. This is why the bag and tag system was implemented.

The bag and tag system was a punishment for when a student was found on a cell phone. That phone would then be confiscated and brought down to the main office, where the student would have to pick it up at the end of the day.

For years, the bag and tag system was in effect within HHS. Since the start of the 2015-16 school year, however, the system has been removed.

“The bag and tag system was not effective,” said Mr. Trent Lawson, Assistant Principal. “We would like to be effective in our school.”

Administration ran into problems because of the liability of having students’ phones in the school’s possession. Students with cracked phones could make up a story and legally cause trouble.

“The biggest change that has happened is that the students phone will stay on the student,” Lawson said.

Although the student’s phone will not be confiscated, students are still advised to keep phones tucked away and on silent.

“We want students’ property to remain student property – we don’t want students taking phones from the teacher’s desk,” Lawson said.

Phones, though at times distracting if they are overused, have the ability to help students learn.

“The phones can be an education tool and not something that people should fear,” Lawson said.

However, not all teachers feel the same way about the educational value that smartphones may present.

Mr. David Williams, language arts, believes that cell phones are more of a distraction than a way for students to utilize the technology they have.

“Now that [students] have Chromebooks, the technology need that student’s have is met by Chromebooks instead of by cell phones,” Williams said.

Williams has used Chromebooks for the previous two years and believes that they are more productive than cell phones.

“The mindset when using a Chromebook is for productivity, while when students use their cell phones, it’s for recreational purposes,” Williams said.

Though Williams rarely took phones down to the office when the Bag and Tag system was in place, he finds cell phones in the classroom more of a distraction than a tool.

Each teacher has their own set of rules within their own classroom. However, one thing reigns true.

“We want the students to learn, plain and simple,” Lawson said.