Holly Smith

People know they're going to get in trouble if they keep it out.

They've started to actually focus on work.

The Academy at Shawnee is a magnet school in West Louisville where Principal Holly Smith says the teachers love the ban.

But the students?

I think they absolutely hate it.

Their phone is their lives.

It's their world.

Students have to lock their phones in a yonder pouch, a locked bag that they carry with them and unlock as they exit after school.

NPR spoke with junior Joseph Jolly and senior Kwane Lanier to get their side of things.

I don't think that's true.

But by at least one measure, the ban is helping students unplug.

According to the school's librarian, they're reading more.

Checkouts from the first semester were triple what they were in the last year.

Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News, Louisville.

The Academy at Shawnee is a magnet school in West Louisville where Principal Holly Smith says the teachers love the ban.

But the students?

I think they absolutely hate it.

Their phone is their lives.

It's their world.

Students have to lock their phones in a yonder pouch, a locked bag that they carry with them and unlock as they exit after school.