In July we offered our opinion that the Warren County School District shouldn’t remove cell phones from classrooms unless teachers said they were a distraction.

Evidently, the phones are a bigger distraction than some district administrators wanted to admit over the summer. Back in July Gary Weber, district superintendent, said the district hadn’t had many problems with cell phones over the past few years and that outright bans often had left district officials chasing their tails trying to make sure students didn’t have phones when they weren’t supposed to have them.

This week, the district came out with a more stringent policy that states, in effect, cell phones and earbuds can be used during passing time, lunch and before and after school. Otherwise, unless needed for work in class and requested by a teacher, cell phones need to remain put away.

Judging from the reaction to the school district’s post, the reaction is about what you’d expect. Students and some parents aren’t happy, while others remember a time when everybody didn’t have a phone in their hand and emerged from the experience unscathed.

In our opinion, the district’s policy is well-intended. Cell phones shouldn’t be a consideration for students when a teacher is teaching. Students who are used to having their technology at their fingertips 24/7 are going to have to learn there are times in the real world when your tech has to be put away, too. It’s hard to operate a forklift with your cell phone going off, and we know for a fact that meetings are a bad time to be interrupted by a cell phone call. Separating from our phones is a fact of life that may as well be taught early. There will still be time to be on phones, just not as much time as some would like.

The most cogent point made by parents is emergency communication. Schools will never communicate quickly enough for parents, but in an emergency situation parents appreciate being able to hear from their child when something is happening. It’s not that far-fetched – school events were quickly interrupted during the search for Michael Burham, for example. If students aren’t going to have their phones, then the school district is going to have to step up its emergency communications with parents.

No one is going to be happy regardless of the direction a school district takes with cell phones. For all of the good that comes with the ability to ensure constant contact for families or having access to tons of information at all times, there is the bad that comes with misuse – bullying, distraction and loss of old-school, face-fo-face interaction. The real challenge for the school district is coming up with a middle ground that satisfies as many parents and youth as possible while creating the best environment to learn.

Is there an app for that?