LIFE
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia lgainesvilletimes.com
Midweek Edition-February 28-29, 2024 3B
Schools struggle to find compromises with cellphone use
Rick Bowmer Associated Press
A phone holder hangs in a classroom at Delta High School, Friday, Feb. 23, in Delta, Utah. At the
rural Utah school, there is a strict policy requiring students to check their phones at the door when
entering every class.
BYJOCELYN GECKER
AP Education Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — In
California, a high school teacher
complains that students watch
Netflix on their phones during
class. In Maryland, a chemistry
teacher says students use gambling
apps to place bets during the school
day.
Around the country, educators
say students routinely send
Snapchat messages in class, listen
to music and shop online, among
countless other examples of how
smartphones distract from teaching
and learning.
The hold that phones have on
adolescents in America today is
well-documented, but teachers say
parents are often not aware to what
extent students use them inside
the classroom. And increasingly,
educators and experts are speaking
with one voice on the question
of how to handle it: Ban phones
during classes.
“Students used to have an
understanding that you aren't
supposed to be on your phone in
class. Those days are gone," said
James Granger, who requires
students in his science classes at
a Los Angeles-area high school to
place their phones in “a cellphone
cubby" with numbered slots. “The
only solution that works is to
physically remove the cellphone
from the student."
Most schools already have rules
regulating student phone use, but
they are enforced sporadically. A
growing number of leaders at the
state and federal levels have begun
endorsing school cellphone bans
and suggesting new ways to curb
access to the devices.
The latest state intervention
came in Utah, where Gov. Spencer
Cox, a Republican, last month
urged all school districts and the
state Board of Education to remove
cellphones from classrooms. He
cited studies that show learning
improves, distractions are
decreased and students are more
likely to talk to each other if phones
are taken away.
“We just need a space for six or
seven hours a day where kids are
not tethered to these devices," Cox
told reporters this month. He said
his initiative, which is not binding,
is part of a legislative push to
protect kids in Utah from the harms
of social media.
Last year, Florida became the
first state to crack down on phones
in school. A law that took effect
in July requires all Florida public
schools to ban student cellphone
use during class time and block
access to social media on district
Wi-Fi. Some districts, including
Orange County Public Schools,
went further and banned phones
the entire school day.
Oklahoma, Vermont and Kansas
have also recently introduced what
is becoming known as “phone-free
schools" legislation.
And two U.S. senators —
Tom Cotton, an Arkansas
Republican, and Tim Kaine, a
Virginia Democrat — introduced
legislation in December that would
require a federal study on the
effects of cellphone use in schools
on students' mental health and
academic performance. Theirs is
one of several bipartisan alliances
calling for stiffer rules for social
media companies and greater
online safety for kids.
Nationally, 77% of U.S. schools
say they prohibit cellphones at
school for non-academic use,
according to the National Center
for Education Statistics.
But that number is misleading.
It does not mean students are
following those bans or all those
schools are enforcing them.
Just ask teachers.
“Cellphone use is out of control.
By that, I mean that I cannot control
it, even in my own classroom,” said
Patrick Truman, who teaches at a
Maryland high school that forbids
student use of cellphones during
class. It is up to each teacher to
enforce the policy, so Truman
bought a 36-slot caddy for storing
student phones. Still, every day,
students hide phones in their laps
or under books as they play video
games and check social media.
Tired of being the phone
police, he has come to a reluctant
conclusion: “Students who are on
their phones are at least quiet. They
are not a behavior issue.”
A study last year from Common
Sense Media found that 97% of
kids use their phones during school
hours, and that kids say school
cellphone policies vary — often
from one classroom to another —
and aren't always enforced.
For a school cellphone ban to
work, educators and experts say
the school administration must
be the one to enforce it and not
leave that task to teachers. The
Phone-Free Schools Movement,
an advocacy group formed last
year by concerned mothers, says
policies that allow students to keep
phones in their backpacks, as many
schools do, are ineffective.
“If the bookbag is on the floor
next to them, it's buzzing and
distracting, and they have the
temptation to want to check it,”
said Kim Whitman, a co-founder
of the group, which advises schools
to require phones be turned off and
locked away all day.
Some students say such policies
take away their autonomy and
cut off their main mode of
communication with family and
friends. Pushback also has come
from parents who fear being cut off
from their kids if there is a school
emergency. Whitman advises
schools to make exceptions for
students with special educational
and medical needs, and to inform
parents on expert guidance
that phones can be a dangerous
distraction for students during an
emergency.
Jaden Willoughey, 14, shares the
concern about being out of contact
with his parents if there's a crisis.
But he also sees the upsides of
turning in his phone at school.
At Delta High School in rural
Utah, where Jaden is a freshman,
students are required to check their
phones at the door when entering
every class. Each of the school's 30
or so classrooms has a cellphone
storage unit that looks like an over-
the-door shoe bag with three dozen
smartphone-sized slots.
“It helps you focus on your work,
and it's easier to pay attention in
class,” Jaden said.
A classmate, Mackenzie
Stanworth, 14, said it would be
hard to ignore her phone if it was
within reach. It's a relief, she said,
to “take a break from the screen
and the social life on your phone
and actually talk to people in
person.”
It took a few years to tweak
the cellphone policy and find a
system that worked, said Jared
Christensen, the school's vice
principal.
“At first it was a battle. But it
has been so worth it,” he said.
“Students are more attentive
and engaged during class time.
Teachers are able to teach without
competing with cellphones. And
student learning has increased,” he
said, citing test scores that are at or
above state averages for the first
time in years. “I can't definitively
say it's because of this policy. But I
know it's helping.”
The next battle will be against
earbuds and smartwatches, he
said. Even with phones stashed
in pouches, students get caught
listening to music on air pods
hidden under their hair or hoodies.
“We haven't included earbuds in
our policy yet. But we're almost
there.”
AP Reporter Hannah
Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City,
Utah, contributed to this report.
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