Baldwin High School students give up phones for a day for charity - TribLIVE

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A group of students at Baldwin High School learned the valuable lesson this week that life does go on without access to their cell phones for a day — all while raising money for a good cause.

Nearly 40 students had their cell phones locked in a safe for seven hours on Dec. 3, as they participated in iFocus, organized by the sophomore class, in an effort to show students the benefits of living in a world without the constant ping of a phone. Each participant collected money throughout the day for Toys for Tots.

“Take a second. Enjoy it. Create memories, real bonds. You don’t want your only memory of high school to be what’s filtered through the screen of a phone,” said Christopher Reilsono, 10th-grade class sponsor.

The idea for the project came from a discussion in Reilsono’s world history class about how students rely on their phones for everything.

“We got to talking about it and said, ‘What if there was a day that we didn’t have that burden and we would just put them all away and have an actual discussion,’” said Nicholas Petrilli, 16, sophomore class president, who spearheaded the project with class vice president Avery Pasquale.

At Baldwin High School, cell phone use is at the teacher’s discretion, Reilsono said. Students are allowed to have one earbud in while walking in the hallways between periods.

Students said they use their phones during the day to listen to music or as a quick calculator. At Baldwin High School, every student has a Chromebook. But the phone is an easier way to quickly look up a question they have in class, students said.

Others said they use their phones to text message their friends or family to stay in touch during their breaks.

Students said there are perks academically to having their phones on them — for example, they use it to take quizzes in class.

“It helps me relax,” said junior Courtney Chapel, 17, of having the ability to listen to music or check her messages in between school work.

Not having a phone on them forced them to focus.

“I think it was easier to stay on task with my work and get my stuff done,” said sophomore Erin Hampton, 15.

Senior Mia Fischetti, 17, said she tries to use her phone as little as possible during school.

“It was kind of nice, actually,” she said of putting it away in a safe for the day. “It wasn’t a distraction throughout my day. I felt like I could completely focus, which was the point.”

During the day, Fischetti learned that she was accepted to her top college choice — Pennsylvania State University — where she will major in economics.

She typically would ask her teacher if she could use her phone to contact her mom in an instant like that. Instead, the teacher let her use the school phone to share the good news with her family.

Turning in their phones wasn’t easy for all of the students.

Reilsono equated watching the moment the students turned over their phones to the first time he dropped his children off at pre-school.

“It was that careful give to the bag with the name on it. Then there were a couple of seconds after they turned in their phone where a couple of them looked bewildered, like, ‘What do I do next?’ Then, you started to see them socialize, without the interference of social media and the text messaging.”

Petrilli said there were a few times that he reached into his pocket to use his phone, only to realize it wasn’t there. He does better working with music, so it was hard to adjust at first, he said.

But he got used to it, and even would contemplate doing it again.

Raising money for Toys for Tots made it all worth it.

“This started as, it’s just a phone, you use it to call people,” Pasquale said. “Now, it’s such a big part of our lives. So for us to give up something that we have to give the kids who don’t have anywhere near as much … I think is a good idea. It made me proud to see that our school was able to do this and realize the bigger picture, that it’s not just about phones.”

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Baldwin High School students give up phones for a day for charity - TribLIVE

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