Paige Lamers

Students at De Pere High School are able to use their phones and headphones during certain periods of the day and are expected to power off and completely disregard their devices during times of instruction (hours 0-8). 

However, do all students truly follow these rules? 

Headphones (AirPods, earbuds, etc.) are commonly used by students to listen to music or podcasts during the day. According to a survey sent out by the Crimson Aviator, 44.1% of students use headphones at school. 

Nevertheless, the DPHS student handbook states that students are only allowed to use headphones during lunch, study hall (excluding freshman study hall), between classes, and before and after school. 

These rules are rarely followed; in fact, 30.1% of students said that they use headphones during instructional time.

Anna Crabbe, a sophomore, said, “It depends. If it is a quiz or test then no, you shouldn’t be able to (use headphones), but if you are not, then it should not be a problem. You can listen to background music if it is not distracting others.”

Not only do students have their own opinions on the usage of headphones, so do the teachers. All teachers choose how they want to enforce using or not using headphones in a classroom setting. 

Some teachers make students put their phones in a phone “home”, which aims to keep students engaged instead of using their headphones. However, other teachers allow students to make the choice.

Mrs. Behnke, a Spanish teacher, said, “I do not find students abusing the school’s policy in my classroom, but if another teacher does choose to not follow the policy within their classroom, then it is on that teacher to enforce how devices are used.”

Students are only allowed to use their headphones during instructional time. I have found that this rule is put into place because many people believe that listening to music during class can be distracting. However, 82.7% of students claim that using their headphones helps them focus.

On the other hand, 23.3% of students say that they never use their headphones during instruction time and 35.9% say they should not be allowed to be used during instructional time. 

Assistant Principal Mr. Thielhelm says, “Research clearly shows that you can’t listen to something and hear and process your teacher’s instruction, but the difficult thing is to determine when to use your AirPods and have a policy that clearly spells that out so that students will know the expectations about it. Naturally, there are times where having headphones in might help, but when that is allowed would be left up to a classroom teacher.”