Summary
Cellphone bans in schools are gaining bipartisan momentum, with at least eight states, including California, Florida, and Virginia, enacting restrictions to combat classroom distractions and protect children’s mental health.
Governors from both parties, such as Arkansas’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders and California’s Gavin Newsom, support these measures, citing benefits of phone-free school days.
While some parents oppose bans, citing emergencies and transportation needs, proponents argue phones disrupt learning and may pose risks during crises.
States differ on implementation, from outright bans to district-level policies or funding for phone storage solutions.
In general I think cell phones in school are a bad plan.
In America when violent terrorists are going to be emboldened by Trump? And after Uvalde? I’d tell my kid fuck the rules, you keep your cell phone on you at all times.
Is your kid going to stop the person shooting up the school with their phone? What’s the goal here?
I’m not expert on these things, but I hear phones can be a line to the outside world in a crisis. Anyone know if that’s true? Can you use a phone to call people or anything like that?
You don’t think there would be people, teachers and staff with cell phones?
For them to dial 911 for help, you psychopath.
Why can’t the adults do it?
In a universe where my kids are getting kevlar backpacks, you will never see me agree to this.
I will put a new burner phone in their lunch daily if it comes to it.
I’m not sure where I land on this debate.
What I am sure of is that most teachers would still have cell phones, so the idea that kids couldn’t make a call to emergency services doesn’t seem relevant. I’m sure a call from any teacher or other employee would be just as effective. Claiming kids need phones so that they can call 911 in an emergency isn’t relevant.
The fact that we have to discuss whether or not kids need to have phones available during school because of school shootings – that’s the truly insane part. I’m no longer convinced that any body count would produce effective “well regulated” gun control in the US.
Seeing the unaddressed issue of bullying to class interruption if not cheating, dumb phones like the blackberry type should be allowed aka ban smartphones and not cellphones.
Kids should be allowed to have cell phones so they can learn good habits and self control with them.
What? That’s crazy talk. Schools are clearly only for warehousing kids in the most orderly manner possible. We let life punch them in the face the second they graduate, it’s the American way.
I have several friends who teach at middle- and high-school grade levels, and they all tell me the same thing: There aren’t really clear rules in place governing cell phone use during class so kids are just fucking around with them all day, and even where the rules are clear, they have no authority to actually take a cell phone from a kid, even if they’re being disruptive to the rest of the students.
On the other hand, an all-out ban (and even “phone storage solutions”) just creates a new problem; keeping a potentially life-saving tool out of the hands of students in emergency situations.
I’m almost certainly over-simplifying this, but why not:
- Let the kids keep their phones
- Set forth strict guidelines for their use while on school property, and
- Ensure teachers have the authority to enforce those guidelines.
Why is this a political issue? Banning phones should be the school’s decision
Everything in society is political. A school’s decision is a localized political decision. The AoE is the only difference
and what are kids supposed to do when their school is attacked by a gunman? a phone is their only survival tool
Me, going on 48: “they let kids have cellphones in school?”