US states want to ban phones in schools. It can be a challenge

As a middle school teacher, Nancy Streit understands how difficult it can be to compete with a smartphone for a child’s attention.

But as a mother, she knows that equipment is a must when there’s an emergency.

“It’s mostly parents who call,” she says, adding that while she doesn’t allow phone use in her classroom, students routinely flout the rules.

The Los Angeles school district where Ms. Streit teaches — the second-largest school district in the country — is the latest to ban smartphone use in schools this week.

It’s part of a growing and popular trend as more states and schools across the US weigh how to manage children’s growing dependence on their devices.

New York and California, the two most populous US states, are weighing new statewide policies on the issue.

Earlier this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a ban on smartphones in classrooms and said he would work with lawmakers on a policy. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has championed a similar law.

This spring, Indiana’s governor signed into law a ban on the class, which would begin in the fall.

The efforts mark the latest chapter in a long-running debate over police use of smartphones in schools and come amid a wave of concern about the mental health of young people in the wake of the pandemic.

Most American schools already have some sort of phone policy. About 76% of schools banned their non-academic use in the 2021-2022 school year, according to US Department of Education.

The latest wave of regulations, however, seeks to take it further.

Raphaela Hodges, a sixth-grade teacher at a school in Los Angeles, says she has seen a disturbing and dramatic change in the way children socialize.

“When they’re uncomfortable, they pick up the phone,” she told the BBC.

It’s also an issue with rare bipartisan consensus, with lawmakers inside States controlled by Republicans and Democrats are pursuing similar policies.

Florida implemented a state law last year that required school districts to ban phones from classrooms and block access to social media on school Wi-Fi.

The law also requires schools to “provide instruction on the social, emotional and physical effects of social media.”

Individual districts in states including Maine and Virginia are also imposing stricter rules around phone use, as are provinces in Canada including Ontario and Alberta.

Concern about phones in schools has existed almost as long as the devices have existed, with little consensus and much controversy.

The United States has seen several attempts to ban communication devices from classrooms since the 1980s.

Early critics feared the phones’ potential to distract students and their connection to the drug trade.

But the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, in which 13 people died, caused some parents and schools to reevaluate phones as a key emergency communication tool. States relaxed the rules — including California, which repealed a phone ban in 2002.

The debate reignited as schools saw phones as a growing distraction, an aid to cyberbullying and a potential tool for students to cheat on assignments.

New York City, which has a total of more than a million students, began enforcing a strict ban — but reversed course in 2015 to allow individual schools to set policies.

The current wave of policies comes as experts express concern about students’ mental health and social media use.

On Monday, one of America’s top health officials called for warning labels similar to those on cigarette packs on social media platforms.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy argued that social media increases the risk of children experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, although research on the topic has been mixed.

“You have a situation where kids are not only trying to learn, but they’re simultaneously on their phones, they’re texting their friends, they’re responding to messages on social media, they’re scrolling through their feeds,” – Dr Murthy told the BBC.

“It makes it very difficult not only to learn, but it makes it difficult at school to build relationships and friendships.”

Teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, a study published in 2019 and often cited by federal health offices found.

Will the policy change stick? Schools have historically struggled to find a balance between safety and limiting the siren call of social media.

Ken Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, said the policies would not work without strong community consensus and consistency in implementation.

“There’s a lot more to it than the average parent would think or another person looking from afar. It’s a wicked problem, there’s a lot of complexity to it,” Mr Trump said.

In Los Angeles, board members voted Tuesday to ban the devices starting next year. But how the policy will work is still not clear.

Alyssa, an 18-year-old from Los Angeles, where many schools have thousands of students, told the BBC she couldn’t imagine being in high school without a phone.

“We have huge campuses — no one can monitor all of that,” she said. “There are thousands of places you can go and not be seen.”