American schools tighten regulations on cell phone use

Students in many schools in the US are having to comply with regulations that strictly limit or completely ban the use of mobile phones at school, as more and more evidence shows the harmful effects of surfing the internet. Phone for teenagers.

The Los Angeles School Board, the second largest school district in the US, in June passed a regulation banning the use of cell phones in schools. Middle and high school students in Clark County, Nevada, are also required to keep their phones in special bags when they come to school, starting this fall.

Some states such as Indiana, Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida have issued regulations restricting cell phone use in schools. Governments in at least three other states have called on schools to limit or ban the use of these devices. Other states have also provided funding to support policies restricting cell phone use in schools.

At least seven of the 20 largest school districts in the country have or are planning to ban cell phone use during the entire school day, and at least seven other districts impose certain restrictions, such as prohibiting students from using them. Using phones during class is still allowed during lunch or breaks between classes.

Teachers and parents, who say cell phones are distracting, interfere with learning and negatively affect students’ mental health, are increasing pressure on school leaders.

“Many people are calling for schools to take away phones when students go to class,” said David Banks, superintendent of the New York City school district, one of the school districts that will soon announce a ban on phones during school hours. “It’s a big issue, involving parents, teachers, officials and students. So we will try to create a reasonable regulation for all parties.”

The most recent federal survey in 2021 found that 43% of American high schools and 77% of middle schools prohibit cell phone use during non-academic hours. Experts and authorities say these rates have now increased significantly.

Schools apply many methods to limit students’ phone use. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina allows students to bring phones to class, but must keep them on silent while on campus and prohibit any non-academic use, including calling and texting.

Houston Independent School District requires students to turn off their phones during school hours. Duval School District in Florida requires students to turn off and keep their phones in their personal pockets or backpacks during classes.

Students who violate the rules often have their phones confiscated and may be subject to more serious disciplinary measures, such as exclusion from extracurricular activities or even suspension for repeated violations.

Other school districts ban cell phones in the classroom, or at the teacher’s discretion during class, but do not ban students from using phones during lunch or in the hallways.

The strictest regulations require students to hand in their phones to teachers during the entire class period or keep them in specialized locked bags like products from the company Yondr. According to Yondr, demand for these phone sealing bags has tripled this year, although the company did not say how many bags are in use. The company anticipates providing this product to more than 2 million students this year.

In Los Angeles, authorities are planning to ban students from using phones during the entire time they study at school.

“Recognizing the harmful effects of smartphones, we believe that restrictions on phone use must be implemented soon,” said Alberto M. Carvalho, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Smartphones and content that students access via the Internet are distracting from their studies as well as negatively affecting their psychological health.”

Carvalho said that in lunchrooms, instead of chatting and interacting with each other, many students are now often just glued to their phones throughout the meal. This made him feel very sad.

In 2009-2010, before cell phones gradually became popular, schools often banned students from using them, fearing that the phones would distract from their studies. A federal survey that year found that 91% of US schools banned the use of phones for non-educational purposes during school hours.

This began to change when companies began developing apps and programs that allowed mobile phones to be used for educational purposes, according to Victor Pereira, a lecturer in education at Harvard University. Phones can be used by students as measuring devices in the laboratory or to participate in testing games to consolidate knowledge.

By the period 2015-2016, about 66% of schools in the US banned the use of phones. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and for many students, phones were the only way to learn online.

But as more students become dependent on mobile devices, schools have begun to reimpose bans on cell phone use during school hours. By 2020-2021, the proportion of schools banning cell phone use increased to 77%, although this number was much lower in high schools.

“We adjust the level of phone restrictions depending on the age of the student,” Pereira said.

In 2023, US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy warned that social networks are a direct threat to children’s mental health. He said overuse of social networks can cause depression, anxiety, sadness about appearance, eating disorders and increased self-esteem, especially in teenage girls. Murthy recommends that parents set up “technology-free” zones where children are not allowed to use their phones.

A study published in 2022 found that banning phones during class can help improve academic performance. The study is based on an experiment in which New York Institute of Technology students were divided into classes that were allowed to use their phones during class and those that did not. The researchers then surveyed the students about their thinking and the amount of knowledge they had absorbed.

“We found that students in classes who don’t use their phones have lower anxiety levels, better absorption of knowledge, and higher attention spans during class,” said Melissa Huey, a psychology expert. Physics at the New York Institute of Technology and one of the two authors of the study, said.

She also added that the symptoms in students in the above study may be even more evident in high school students.

Teachers are among the strongest proponents of banning phones in schools, as they clearly see how distracting they are, while teachers are tired of having to constantly monitor student use. phone during hours.

72% of high school teachers reported that student distractions from cell phones are a “serious problem” in class, according to a Pew Research Center survey in the fall of 2023. In a report by the Association Education America, the country’s largest teachers’ union, educators expressed frustration about phone use during class and encouraged teachers to come up with solutions to limit students’ phone use. throughout the study period.

This approach has worked in Cleveland, where the teachers union successfully pushed the local government to enforce a ban on student cell phone use at school. This new regulation requires supervisors to confiscate students’ phones before entering school. This policy will take effect next school year.

The previous policy required students to turn off their phones, but according to Shari Obrenski, president of the Cleveland teachers union, that meant constant supervision by teachers to prevent students from breaking the rules.

School violence is also one of the worrying consequences of using phones at school. Obrenski said that high school students used their phones to arrange fights, filmed all of those fights and posted them on social networks. “Many students use their phones to create chaos and perpetuate violence in our schools,” she said.

Authorities say students and sometimes parents will react strongly to cell phone restrictions at school. Some parents worry about not being able to contact their children in emergency situations, such as a school shooting.

However, those who support cell phone bans argue that students can use phones in the school office if they need to urgently contact parents in an emergency, and school shootings are also not allowed. happens frequently.

On Change.org, more than 170 petitions for a mobile phone ban were created in the past six months, with a total of more than 120,000 signatures. They mostly asked for restrictions on cell phone use at school to be relaxed.

A petition by Louisiana students for a law banning cell phone use has garnered more than 43,000 signatures. “As high school students, we are currently being treated no differently than kindergarteners,” the petition reads.

Calvin Dillon, an English teacher at Steinbrenner High School in Florida, thinks a blanket ban on cell phones won’t be effective.

“Simply imposing a ban to completely eliminate cell phone use in the classroom is unrealistic,” Dillon said. “But if you create a situation or experience that’s more interesting than what a student can find on their phone in 20 seconds, you’re doing your job well.”

Nate Casibang, a senior at Sickles High School in Hillsborough County, said he understands why officials want to ban phones in the classroom. But he likes to use his phone for educational purposes, like using the Canvas app to do homework and check his grades.

Nate, 17, knows that phones can be harmful, and he doesn’t like the way he feels after scrolling through TikTok for two hours. But he doesn’t want people to forget that phones also have good things.

“It’s easy to see the bad side of using your phone,” Nate said. “But there are also a lot of people who are using it to become smarter, far beyond any previous generation.”

Timber Creek High School with 3,500 students in Florida applies a complete ban, requiring students to keep their phones on silent and in their backpacks throughout the day.

Principal Marc Wasko said he was surprised by how quickly students adapted. Initially, supervisors confiscated about 100 phones used illegally each day. This number quickly decreased to about 10-30 units not long after.

The school has added lunchtime activities to help students adjust. On Tuesdays and Fridays, students can play pickleball, and sometimes a DJ comes to play music. Students read books and use the library more.

Wasko recalls fun moments that might never have happened if students were glued to their phone screens: They brought Polaroid and digital cameras to school to document last school year’s homecoming week. He found that students seemed to be actively communicating with each other more than before. Students now happily greet the principal when they see him in the hallway, instead of being glued to their phones.

“It’s great to see kids living their age,” Wasko said.