Bullard High School in Fresno will be a ‘cellphone free environment.’ When will ban start?

It’s (almost) official: students at Fresno’s Bullard High School soon won’t be allowed to access their cellphones during the school day.

Fresno Unified spokesperson Nikki Henry confirmed in an email to The Fresno Bee’s Education Lab on Friday afternoon that the high school “is planning to roll out a cellphone free environment this school year.”

Bullard plans to use magnetically locking phone pouches produced by Yondr, the same company entertainers like Bruno Mars and Cardi B have used at concerts to prevent audience members from getting distracted by phones during shows.

Does that mean Bullard students will start locking away their cellphones on Fresno Unified’s first day of school, Aug. 15?

Henry said not yet.

Students can expect to have access to their phones on the first day, while a timeline for implementation will be ready next week.

“There will be more information for parents at Bullard’s mixers on the 9th and 10th when students drop off their packets, and there is a Q&A meeting set for parents/families on August 18th,” Henry said. “All of that information will come directly from Bullard to Bullard families.”

In July, Bullard Principal Armen Torigian told the Ed Lab that he expected the policy to be ready to roll out by January 2023.

Torigian could not be reached for further comment Friday due to participation in the district’s principals’ institute, he wrote in a text to the Ed Lab.

The move comes mere months after Bullard High School made headlines for a photo of a student in the high school’s weight room wearing what appeared to be a makeshift Ku Klux Klan hood.

The photo, which circulated widely on social media, sparked system-wide protests against racism in Fresno Unified in May and brought other social media accounts to light that targeted the district’s Black students.

Torigian told the Ed Lab previously that the new policy is unrelated to that incident. He said he was inspired by a similar policy he encountered as principal at Tenaya Middle School before coming to Bullard.

It’s also unclear whether the Bullard community is on board with the move.

One Bullard parent told the Ed Lab she questioned whether the policy is wise today, especially in a world where school shootings are a real threat, and parents need to communicate with their students in an emergency.

Lauren Beal, a teacher at Edison High School, echoed these sentiments in a July interview with the Ed Lab. Especially in light of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, which claimed the lives of two teachers.

“I could be the person shot in my classroom,” Beal said. “So if I have access to, like, students’ locked phones ... should they have to reach into, you know, my body laying there to get access to what they need to do? It’s very frightening.”

Technology, in general, has “become central” in her classroom, Beal added, and she thinks it’s critical to teach students how to use it appropriately at this stage in their lives.

“As adults, we are often on our phones, right? We have to deal with how we use our phones appropriately — when it’s socially appropriate, work appropriate, etc.,” Beal said. “So I think cutting students off from that, like ownership or responsibility to navigate that puts them at a disadvantage.”

Bullard-area trustee Terry Slatic, a vocal supporter of the policy, said he expects other schools to follow suit.

Henry wrote that some of the district’s “alternative education campuses” have also used Yondr patches, but FUSD doesn’t “have any other campuses at this time instituting a cellphone free environment exactly the same way as Bullard.”

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website .