The New Age of Cell Phone Bans
Schools all over America are beginning to make students lock up their phones for the day to prevent distractions and increase focus.
“Students who still have the awesome privilege of school phone use, enjoy it while you can, as it too will be fully taken away. Many U.S. states are beginning to adopt these phone ban laws.”
TOP ARTICLE OF THE MONTH WINNER - Sept ‘24
“Okay class, turn to page two,” your professor boringly drones on. It's another day in English. You sit at a table in a blank room, flickering overhead lights, and a whiteboard far off in the distance full of scribbles and unknown words. As your boredom increases, only one thing can actually stop it; The convenient entertainment of your phone. However, as you begin to whip it out, an unfortunate realization occurs. It’s been locked up till the end of the day. Now, you’re FORCED to pay attention to the worst class ever.
This is exactly what students in Indiana, Florida, and Louisiana have experienced daily beginning in the 24-25 school year. All three states rolled out mandatory phone bans leading to students having to unexpectedly lock up their phone for the day in a classroom, or a pouch known as a “Yondr,” which can only be opened at the end of the school day by a special magnet provided by a teacher.
Schools have many smart reasons to ban cellular devices. According to statistics from the Pew Research Center, most adolescents use social media for 2+ hours a day, even on school days. Another one of Pew’s surveys also found that 72% of high school teachers and 33% of middle school teachers said phone distractions were a major problem in their classrooms as well.
Now why bring up this subject happening in another state? It's definitely not related to California, right? Unfortunately, this is very important for all California students. In February 16, 2024, a new law was put into place for California's schools: “Assembly Bill 3216, renamed the Phone-Free School Act, requires that every school district, charter school and county office of education develop a policy limiting the use of smartphones by July 1, 2026,” proposed by the authors of the bill, David Alvarez, Josh Hoover, Josh Lowenthal, and Al Muratsuchi.
Students who still have the awesome privilege of school phone use, enjoy it while you can, as it too will be fully taken away. Multiple other U.S. states are beginning to adopt these phone ban laws, or have at least recommended similar policies. Naturally, please blame Indiana, Florida, and Louisiana for starting this awful trend.
In my opinion, I feel like phones are a very big distraction at school, but rules should be less strict. However, I do agree that too many phones distract me, and other students from efficiently working, so it's best to restrict phone use a little bit, rather than not at all.
As someone in a school with a “Yondr” policy, I can confirm it's very easy to bypass, either by force opening them, or just putting a fake phone inside. In short, the stricter a rule is, the more people will try breaking it. Having a rule that promotes more phone freedom would prevent this but still make the classroom less distracting. For example, having a rule where phones had to be locked up before class, but could be used during passing period or lunch would be a rule students would be more happy with, while still preventing in class distractions.
And for an average school, preventing distractions, and increasing learning is a must so it's unfortunately very reasonable to ban phones and other small electronics altogether instead of taking quieter, or no measures at all.
I know, the clearly horrible message must be very tough to hear. So as a closing question. If you were the president, would you make a law for phone usage in school? Why or why not? In every school, or just specific ones? What phone rules at school would change with you in power?
Works Cited
Anderson, Monica. Faverio, Michelle. Gottfried, Jeffery. “Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023” Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/12/11/teens-social-media-and-technology-2023/.
Panchal, Nirmita, Zitter, Sasha. “A Look at State Efforts to Ban Cellphones in Schools and Implications for Youth Mental Health” KFF, https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/a-look-at-state-efforts-to-ban-cellphones-in-schools-and-implications-for-youth-mental-health/.
Kingson, Jennifer. “The new school essential: A Yondr cell phone pouch.” Axios, https://www.govtech.com/education/k-12/phone-free-without-yondr-pouches-heres-how-its-going.
