Bell to Bell: Why Schools Are Fighting Back Against Smartphones (with Principal Armen Torigian)

Are phones ruining school? One high school principal says yes, and he did something about it. At Bullard High in Fresno, California, students wandered the halls like zombies, glued to their screens. Lunchtime was silent. Classrooms were battlegrounds for attention. Test scores dropped. Anxiety soared. Principal Armen Torigian, a Bullard alumnus, took pride in his community and remembered a very different high school experience. He knew times had changed, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that students deserved better—high school should be better than this. So he made a bold move: a bell-to-bell phone ban.It wasn’t easy. Parents pushed back. Students threatened him and his family. But he held the line, convinced it was the right thing to do. Was it? Join Principal Torigan and Nicki of Scrolling 2 Death as they unpack the ban, the fallout, and the promising changes unfolding on campus. His experience makes us reconsider: what role should phones play in our classrooms and our daily lives?