PLYMOUTH, Vt. — For three days and two nights this spring, 27 students from Hartford High School did something that few teenagers experience in today’s world: They went “unplugged.”

No cellphones or internet. No Instagram or TikTok.

The students, joined by three teachers, embarked on a “technology-free” trip to Bethany Birches Camp in Plymouth in March. Students created their own daily schedules and got to know schoolmates who traveled in different social circles.

“There were definitely moments (on the trip) when I didn’t know what to do,” junior Tate Mosenthal said. “But there weren’t times when I said, ‘Wow, I miss my phone’.”

It was the second year of the hands-on, or more aptly put, hands-off, experiment at Hartford High. Peter Driscoll, a physical fitness coach at the school, came up with the idea.

“I found that one of my biggest concerns as a parent who works in a high school was the cellphone addiction….And what that might look like in my (young) daughter’s life in a couple of years,” Driscoll said.

The idea was to “take kids off campus, where they give us their phones and they have no digital contact for however long we go,” he said.

Driscoll approached longtime Hartford High teachers Tricia Pfeiffer and Halleck Pogue to see if it was a project they thought was worth pursuing and whether they’d participate.

“We were immediately both like, ‘Yes.’ There was no hesitation,” said Pfeiffer, who teaches English. “It’s a minute to experience what it’s like to connect with humans in another way.

“Are you going to be lifelong friends? Maybe not,” she added. “But you at least talked to different people; shared a meal with different people.”

Before the initial technology-free trip in the spring of 2024, Hartford High Principal Nelson Fogg had to sign off on pulling more than two dozen students out of classes for three days.

“For me, it’s an easy approval,” Fogg said. “Experiential learning is the best type of learning.”

A set schedule — or lack of one — was a big part of the trip.

Each morning, kids were able to wake up on their own time and help themselves to food prepared by students on the day’s breakfast crew.

In the afternoon, students could choose between a wide range of group activities, including hiking, indoor rock climbing and board games.

After dark, a majority of students participated in rowdy games of night tag or gathered around a campfire to toast marshmallows, talk and relax before everyone returned to their dorms and lights went out at midnight.

In addition to enjoying the freedom to create their own schedules, students contributed their favorite family recipes to meal times and shared the tasks of preparing and serving the food. They made pasta dishes, sandwiches, salads and crepes. Buffalo chicken dip on chips quickly became a favorite appetizer.

“The moment that encapsulated the purpose of the trip was cooking meals and eating together as a group,” senior Matt Tsouknakis said. “It brought us out of the friend groups that we tended to stick in back on campus, and pushed us to make connections with new people.

“I began to take the moments that I was with other people without my phone more seriously. It helped me enjoy the present.”

Like at many schools across the country, Hartford High’s screen-usage policy has been a much-debated topic in recent years. Teachers have worked alongside students to seek a healthier balance of screen time in schools.

Last year, color-coded signs were mounted in each classroom to communicate whether it was an appropriate time for students to have their cellphones out. Some teachers put up red signs that forbid phone use. Others hung yellow signs that stated phone use was allowed with the teacher’s permission.

“Technology has driven a wedge between younger people and older people,” Fogg said. “And when you take that away, it takes down that barrier.”

The Vermont Legislature is on the verge of passing a bill that would ban students’ use of smartphones in the state’s public school districts and independent schools.

Under the proposal, schools would have to develop policies prohibiting students from using smartphones and other personal electronic devices such as smartwatches during school hours. Gov. Phil Scott has indicated he supports the measure.

In New Hampshire, Gov. Kelly Ayotte supports a Republican-led legislative proposal that calls for a statewide “bell-to-bell” ban on cellphones in school classrooms.

Nationally, 26 states have enacted cellphone bans since 2023, the Associated Press reported last week.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who President Donald Trump dismissed last month, had earlier proposed that Congress require warning labels on social media platforms about their potential to negatively affect young people’s lives.

According to Pew Research Center, a nonprofit think tank, 95% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 have access to smartphones.

At Hartford High, the unplugged trip is part of the school’s curriculum aimed at reducing students’ cellphone reliance.

The trip, free to students, was funded through a $3,500 grant from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation.

To allow as many students as possible to experience the technology-free retreat, none of this spring’s 27 students were part of first group that journeyed to Bethany Birches in 2024.

Bethany Birches sits high in the hills of back country roads, surrounded by nature. The 100-acre property includes a main bunk cabin, pond, playground and two tree houses, a 10-minute walk from the camp’s parking lot.

The site of the rustic camp, which dates back to the 1960s, was once farmland donated by a couple who had “noticed that many kids in Vermont didn’t have lots of constructive activities to engage in during the summer” and nearby camps were also “very expensive,” according to the nonprofit’s website.

Bethany Birches, a nonprofit, now hosts year-round programs for children and is available for schools to rent for their own excursions.

“When you get people together outside to do fun things, there’s something special that emerges,” said Brandon Bergey, the camp’s executive director for nearly 20 years.

The Hartford High teachers who served as this year’s chaperones are now looking into holding multiple outings annually at Bethany Birches or finding a larger venue to give more students the opportunity to participate.

“I think that finding a way for more kids to do it would be cool,” said Pogue, a mathematics teacher. Another possibility is doing a trip on a smaller scale, which would still have the “same meaning,” for students, he added.

“We don’t want to stay stagnant, so how can we strive to make the (unplugged trip) better?” Driscoll said.

“If we had stayed there for longer, I think we would have gotten more connected,” said senior Nika DuMoulin. “But it was short and sweet.”

When asked which moment on the trip had made a lasting impression on him, Driscoll replied, “Just to see the level of connections that happens from the first day to the second day is really, really powerful.”

Lyla Metheny, a Hartford High junior, was among the students who participated in the technology-free trip.