Marist students are adjusting to a new technology ban in the cafeteria during lunch time. It was put in place to with the goal of getting people to talk to each other.

“We thought it was a good idea to give the kids a chance to be kids. Let’s get off the technology and communicate,” says Dean Dan Higgins. “The whole thing is just that communication piece, that, you know, social piece as opposed to being buried in an iPad or on a phone, let’s talk to the people around this.”

There have been fewer disciplinary problems involving social media since this new policy began in August. 

“In the past, I know that many of the disciplinary issues that we’ve had in the cafeteria have been from cell phone, iPad usage, and social media. So we thought, hey, if we’re limiting it in the rest of the school, let’s limit it here as well,” says Higgins. 

Students have mixed reactions. 

“The new iPad policy is good and bad. It’s bad because I can’t do my homework at lunch unless I go to the homework tables. But it’s good because everyone talks more,” says student Ashton Keene. 

Higgins and Coach Rob Topps worked with the student service officers to put study tables, or homework tables, outside of the cafeteria. They did this so that students could still do their work during lunch. 

“There are kids who have a lot of work for school, who have a lot of stuff after school, whether it’s after school jobs, sports, clubs, whatever it is. So we decided that instead of having kids wandering around, overloading the Ark or going to areas unsupervised, we thought, let the kids do work out there after they finish eating,” says Higgins. 

He thinks the policy has been effective so far and does not see a change in the future for this rule.

“We’re still getting work done, we’re limiting the amount of issues that have come from electronics or social media, and we’re building more of a social escape down in the cafeteria for 45 minutes,” says Higgins.