Many states within the U.S. are starting to pass legislation that enforces phone bans on public secondary school campuses, whether that be classroom bans, where students cannot use their phones during class, or full bans that would render students unable to use their devices for the whole school day. This includes the entire state of Texas, with some schools in the Lone Star State sometimes requiring students to put their devices in pouches for the entire school day. Over 30 other states are also implementing new legislation around devices in schools.
In Texas school districts, they require that schools cannot use their phones at any point during the school day, and this extends to all education levels. Minnesota law states that a phone policy must be in place for secondary schools and elementary schools in their respective districts, where they have more freedom of what they can do regarding phones on campuses.
A majority of people who support the phone ban are, not surprisingly, educators. Within the last decade, the use of phones in the classroom has skyrocketed, with 97% of 11- to 17-year-olds prone to using their phones during the school day. This absurd, constant use of phones has caused school teachers to advocate for a stronger ban on phones within the classroom. Many professionals in education view these bans as something that fosters a positive school environment, improves learning universally and leads students to more social interactions.
On the other side of the argument, the majority of people who do not want phone bans in their schools are students. Students actively do not want the phone ban to be in effect because it can be harmful to their everyday lives. Without their phones, in emergencies, they cannot contact outside services for help if a catastrophe happens on campus. Whether a violent intruder or a medical emergency, students would have no way to contact their parents or guardians, and contacting emergency services would have to be solely in the hands of the closest educator. This ban also makes students feel like they are being unfairly punished for just having a phone on their person.
Freshman Hannah McGath doesn’t believe in a phone ban, or if there is one, that it should be only a partial ban, where students could use devices during permitted times.
“I believe most students can self-regulate phone use,” McGath said, “A few people can not, but those few people shouldn’t ruin it for the rest of us.”
McGath believes the differences between Columbia Heights High School (CHHS) and its feeder middle school, Columbia Academy (CA), when it comes to the phone policy depend on maturity, but even then, in her own words, “the phone ban at the middle school is ridiculously strict.”
CHHS’s phone policy is vastly different from the one at CA, as at CHHS, the phone policy varies by teacher, some of them not allowing use during class at all, some doing the opposite. However, at CA, phone use is not allowed at all—even having them on your person is a violation of the policy.
Nevertheless, phone bans at schools make it easier for teachers to do what they are being paid to do—teach. Students having access to their phones in class can make it easier for them to slack off, for example, as it can go from just changing what song is playing in their earbuds to seeing if they have a notification, which then devolves into doom-scrolling and not completing classwork.
Without phones in schools, teachers and students together can foster a better environment for teaching and learning, including one that focuses more on the content and less on harmful acts such as taking unsolicited photos or cyber-bullying. Immediate access to phones can result in students spreading rumors and false information, which can lead to conflicts in and outside of school, which can make students feel unsafe and unwelcome in a space that they have the right to be in.
CHHS English Teacher Ms. Tina Schaefer also believes that phone bans are necessary for students to function in class on a more thoughtful level, which moves them away from the addictive and lazy nature of phone use.
“Many students and people depend on their phones when they are bored,” Schaefer said. “Many people lack the attention span to focus on deeper reading or to be critical thinkers, or they use the technology to think for them by using AI.”
With a phone policy that varies by teacher, Schaefer, who used to work down at CA and has had a child herself educated at both schools, believes that it should be consistent at both CA and CHHS.
And yet, while phone bans are supposed to improve students’ overall behavior and reduce their daily screentime, so far, the studies have proven the effect of the latter to be negligible at best. The dent in usage appears to only be around 30-40 minutes, which is ultimately minuscule compared to the average daily screen-time for a teenager: 5-6 hours.
With many states requiring phone bans in varying levels of extremity, including Wisconsin’s governor signing a bill to enact a harsher phone ban than the one in Minnesota, it appears that the U.S. is slowly moving towards a phone-less school system.
