Lake Orion has long been considered a close-knit, connected community.? Now imagine one of Michigan’s largest high schools being cell phone free for an entire day, prompting the town’s students to interact like teenagers of the past, via real face-to-face communication ? and all for a great cause!
On’Friday, January 16, Lake Orion High School’s 2,400 students will be asked to ‘cell out? and check-in their phones in a secure location when they enter the building that morning, with no access to them until the end of the day.?
Instead of texting, tweeting and using other social media to communicate between classes and at lunch, they will have to actually speak to each other like their peers did years ago, before the proliferation of cell phones and mobile technology. Every student who participates will be given a cell out t-shirt, provided by local businesses and supporters.?
Lake Orion is the largest high school in the state, possibly the nation, to ever attempt such a feat of cell phone cessation.? The students? teachers, parents and guardians, many of whom never had a cell phone until they were adults, think this is a great experiment ? and think the students will indeed cell out.?
Most importantly, the daunting task will benefit U.S. servicemen and women overseas. For every phone? locked up, Lake Orion’s student leadership program is donating $1 to Cell Phones for Soldiers, plus accepting additional donations from their classmates, staff members and others. This national charitable organization distributes phones to military personnel overseas, for use in calling home to their loved ones.?
The leadership class feels that the sacrifice of being cell phone free for a day is a small way to show support for the armed forces who sacrifice daily for our freedom.
We invite you to visit Lake Orion High School on’January 16’to talk to students, teachers, military representatives and others about the school’s cell out for soldiers and what it is actually like to focus on each other, rather than their phones.?
Check-in starts at?7 a.m.’in the building’s lobby, with lunch running from?10:30 ? noon.? There also will undoubtedly be plenty of classroom discussion about the pros and cons of technology and reconnecting with each other.?