The Push to Ban Phones in School

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. Tavern and this is the. [Music]. daily as students around the country. head back to school many are. encountering a new reality bands on. their use of cell. phones today my colleague Natasha singer. on the growing Crackdown and the. contentious debate.

that it has. [Music]. prompted it's Tuesday September. [Music]. 3rd Natasha welcome back to the show. thanks so much for having me back so. Natasha as longtime listeners of the. show will know you cover technology in. schools and we wanted to have you back. on the show today because this is the. week that many kids across the country.

including here in New York are going. back to school and you've been reporting. on a growing debate that's really become. the talk of the new school year tell us. about it we're seeing this incredible. wave of one state after another trying. to crack down on student cell phone use. in schools and because so many states. are passing these laws so quickly it has. become the back to school story students. and cell phones and it's started last.

year when Florida was the first state to. pass a law that barred students from. using their phones during class time and. this year we've seen at least eight. states both red States like Indiana and. blue States like Minnesota pass laws. that either restrict student use of. phones like ban them during class ban. them during the entire school day or. require school districts to limit. student use of the phones teachers say. students are spending so much time on. their phone that it detracts from.

learning and that teachers are spending. so much time getting kids to put down. their phone that it detracts from. teaching so this is really the education. world really starting to try to get its. head around you know what has really. become kind of a Scourge in American. life which is phone addiction and you. know this problem that we all in some. ways struggle with you know we had the. Surgeon General on a few months ago and. he thought kids access to the internet. and to social media had become so. pernicious that he was actually.

recommending warning. labels I think it definitely Taps into. mounting anxiety in the United States. that cell phones are contributing to. mental health problems among young. people and there's certainly studies. showing that kids who spend an unhealthy. amount of time online compulsive use of. social media and phones is associated. with depression and isolation and. thoughts of self harm I don't think we. have evidence that is actually causal so.

I think there's a major question here as. we're putting these phone bands in. effect but the Practical problem in. schools is the phones are detracting. from learn and that is something that. every teacher says I mean honestly this. seems kind of like a no-brainer I mean. Banning phones in school seems basically. like something that for the most part. everybody would agree with it does seem. like a. no-brainer and there are a lot of folks. in favor of it but there's also a lot of. debate and so for example we see that. the majority of parents in surveys say.

that they agree that cell phone use. should be limited but 50% of parents say. that there should be some cell phone. access during school and while the laws. are happening really quickly the larger. discussion is far from resolved and. that's why we're all talking about it. because people have such strong views on. all. sides okay so these Bans are becoming. law really quickly just over the past. year but these debates over kids and. cell phones and technology in schools.

have been happening for a very long time. what's the historical precedent. here it starts in the 1980s when there's. a boom in the illegal drug trade and. kids are using pagers and phones to sell. and buy. drugs and you see schools in the 1980s. begin to ban students from bringing. pagers and cell phones to school. premises right it's not like you keep it. in your bag you can't bring it into. school and then as more and more kids. get phones in the '90s they're ringing.

in class they're beeping in class and it. becomes a distraction and so on top of. the drug stuff you see schools ban them. as a. [Music]. distraction and then in 1999 there's the. mass shooting at Coline High School in. Colorado and students are killed and. it's devastating and it's really the. first mass school shooting that is on. the radar of American culture and. education.

changes and school security changes and. along with that parents now want to be. able to get hold of their kids during an. emergency and schools lift the cell. phone bands because suddenly every. parent wanted to be able to reach their. child in an emergency and that made. perfect sense to. [Music]. everybody and then cell phones change. right suddenly they become these. powerful mini computers and so you have. kids walking around school with these. powerful devices and they are completely.

fixated they're scrolling they're. clicking they're liking photos they're. filming they're posting photos and it. becomes another major issue in. [Music]. schools so this is where we start to see. the push back over Tech this is starting. to sound familiar right in our current. time concerns over screen time how. addictive these phones really are and a. growing concern over what that means for. young young people I think that's.

absolutely true the iPhone and social. media change everything and in the. middle of that concern increasing the. pandemic. happens and because we were isolated and. because many schools were closed now you. have a whole generation of elementary. middle and high school kids at home. essentially left to their devices. schools are ever more reliant on. technology and kids their parents may be.

working their parents may be somewhere. else they are using their phones more to. entertain themselves to talk to each. other they become much more virtually. dependent and then when the pandemic is. over they come back to school with a. different relationship to technology and. a much more virtual life than they had. before the pandemic okay so the pandemic. supercharges this connection between. kids and their technology. what's the result of all of this what.

happens the result is that you have. students coming back to school many of. whom are more comfortable on their. phones talking to each other through. group text message more comfortable. learning online than in person and that. worries parents and child psychologists. and teachers because you not only see. more distraction but one of the things. that happens is there's a growing.

concern that there has been technology. overuse and that the two together phones. in school are combustible and a. detriment to learning and so you see a. push back among teachers among some. parents to try to limit phone use or. take away the phones in school to enable. kids to concentrate more on their. schoolwork and have more in-person. experiences. okay so it sounds like this is the.

beginning of the movement to ban phones. where does it. start it started last year in Florida. where a Republican state lawmaker named. Brad joerger started worrying about what. cell phones and social media might be. doing to kids I have children of my own. and teenage Sons so I see it day in and. day out my my wife has worked with youth. for 10 years in in this high school. system so we see it in and out the. pressure and he has five kids and he's. been reading studies about how much.

students are spending on their phones. and how many notifications they're. getting during the school day we know. that there's addiction issues with. social media psychologists across the. country time and time again report the. negative effects of social media on our. youth and he wanted to do something and. so he introduced this bill I think this. is a common sense bipartisan approach to. this I think that you know and even in a. Republican state like Florida it is a. really popular bipartisan issue rep. Jagger's bill passed the Florida house. and the Florida Senate.

unanimously and it becomes a lighthouse. state for other states and governors. wanting to pass similar laws so when did. things start to happen in those other. states so what happened this year was. this spring parents listen up a cell. phone ban during class time now coming. to your child's School the governor just. Indiana passed a law resembling. Florida's a new law prohibits students. from having cell phones on their person. during the school day I ban on cell. phone use is now a part of South.

Carolina's state budget Louisiana passes. a law and South Carolina passes a law. there is a growing list of lawmakers. that are pushing for restrictions to. cell phone usage in Pennsylvania schools. Pennsylvania and Delaware and Minnesota. and Ohio passed laws also the state of. Virginia is cracking down on students. using cell phones in public schools with. a half million dollar initiative so and. then it's become an issue for Governors. governor Glen.

has issued an executive order to. establish cell phone free education Glen. yunen the governor of Virginia issued an. executive order that will require state. agencies to create cell phone free. education policies for schools to adopt. by the start of next year California. governor Gavin Newsome putting out the. call to all school districts to restrict. cell phones in the classroom and then. also other Governors now I'd like to. take a moment to talk about cell phones. in our schools incl including the. governors of California and New York are.

rushing in to say they too are going to. work with their state legislatures it's. hard enough for adults to pull. themselves away from cell phones I can't. imagine how hard it is for these young. people as well to pass their own state. laws restricting cellone Us in schools. the status quo is not working for our. children in particular it's time to. start figuring out Solutions here okay. so this is really happening it is now a. gathering Trend but Nat how are states.

actually doing it like how do you go. about banning a kid from using their. phone all day and enforcing that I think. that that is the crucial. question and it is really. [Music]. complicated it's one thing for a state. to announce kids can't use their phones. at school and it's a whole other thing. for schools to actually stop kids from. using their phones during class.

[Music]. we'll be right. [Music]. back so Natasha you said these bands are. very complicated to apply walk me. through what states are actually doing. different states have implemented. different rules and then even from. school District to school district there.

are these differences one of the main. differences is in some states and. Schools students are not allowed to use. their phone during class right so they. walk into the classroom they cannot use. their phone during instructional time in. other places kids cannot use their. phones from the moment they get to. school to the moment they leave so maybe. they're allowed to use it on the school. bus but when they arrive in school no. more phone till the end of the day and. different kinds of rules end up with. different kinds of enforcement so I went.

last year after Florida passed this new. law to see how it was going and I went. specifically to Orange County Public. Schools which is in the Orlando area. because they went further than Florida. and banned student cell phone use during. the entire school day oh wow and I. wanted to see what that would look. [Music]. like and I went to visit the school. Timber Creek High School which has. several thousand students it's a huge. School. and they all eat lunch in a communal.

outdoor space now at Timber Creek. students were allowed to carry their. phones they were just supposed to keep. them in their backpack or turned off and. put away to enforce that during lunch. there were security folks who patrolled. lunch who sat on these black Yamaha golf. courts huh and if a guard on a golf cart. saw a kid take out their phone and start. using it then the kid would get nabbed.

by the guard put on the golf cart driven. to the front office where they have to. hand over their phone and put the phone. in cell phone jail for the rest of the. day and the student gets like a receipt. and then they go off so that's some. pretty aggressive policing of it right. and the security guard told me also that. he looked at the videos of the hallways. and if students were using their phone. in the hallways which they weren't. supposed to do he would sometimes go to. class and take them out of class and. take them to the front office to deposit. their. [Music].

phone so that is one way of enforcing a. ban and let me just say that the. district was really happy with the. outcomes because like they got pickle. ball during lunch and pingpong and kids. played twister and talked to each other. and had lunch together and like. principal was saying to me before the. phone ban kids didn't even talk to each. other during lunch right they just. looked at their phones and so the school. felt like and teachers felt like the. outcome was great in other districts. there rules that you have to put your.

phone in your locker during the school. day or you're required to put it in a. lockable bag that's magnetically locked. and you like walk up to school and folks. are standing out front and they. magnetically lock your bag and you carry. your phone in a locked bag for the rest. of the day and then there are other. districts where teachers can do what. they choose right they have leeway to. ban the phones or not and so I spoke to. this history teacher in San Antonio.

Texas and he had bought this hanging. cell phone container that he put on the. wall from Amazon which has these pockets. and every student has to put their phone. in a different numbered pocket at the. beginning of class the pockets are big. enough where kids can charge their phone. during class and then at the end of the. day they can collect their phone from. the pocket on the wall and go off to the. next class so kind of the other side of. the spectrum of restrictiveness this is. just kind of up to the discretion of the. teacher right but you also have to.

understand that I hear from teachers. parents and kids that there's all kinds. of ways around these like kids have. dummy phones that you put in your locker. and you carry your other phone around so. for every rule there's a way around the. rule so what happens to a kid if they. get caught doing that again there are. different consequences and different. enforcement in some schools you get. several tries the first time you know. you just have to put your phone away the. second time your phone might be. confiscated and put in the central.

office it may be that like if you are a. repeat uh violator of these cell phone. rules that your phone is confiscated and. your parent is called and told that they. have to come pick up your phone there. are also lots of offenses kids with do. with phones so if it's a combination of. cyber bullying and violating the cell. phone rule you could be suspended okay. so it sounds like there's lots of. variation with these bands and how they. work which I imagine is part of the. reason that there's so much debate about. them as you mentioned what has been the. reaction from students and teachers and.

parents what are people telling you well. it's really interesting because we asked. readers to weigh in and tell us what. they felt about this and we heard from. more than 1100 parents and teachers and. principes and students and teachers are. largely positive and so are School. administrators they were really clear. about harms so that high school teacher. in Texas I told you about wrote in to. say that in his school kids premeditated.

fights on their phone they used text. messages to arrange like we're going to. beat up so and so and then their friends. would be there on hand to film the. beating before the kid even knew that. they were going to be attacked right and. so he said to the school like let's have. kids turn in their phones before they. leave the classroom before they go to. the bathroom or something and so they. can't bring their phone to a fight and. he told me that this simple change of. asking kids who want a bathroom pass to. leave their phone on the teacher's desk.

has apparently already cut down on the. amount of fighting in his school. interesting so. uniformly teachers and administrators. were really in favor of limiting student. access to cell phones during class. unless it is for a specific educational. purpose because there's all kinds of. apps and educational games you can play. with phones and so they did stress that. they want kids to be able to access. those and what about parents it is much. more divided among parents many parents. are concerned about about what their. kids are doing on their phones they're.

concerned about social media a lot of. parents talk to me about that their kids. were bullied or their kids observed. bullying exacerbated by phones kids are. videotaping each other going to the. bathroom in the bathrooms and sharing. that online so there are all kinds of. reasons parents would like limits on. cell phones in school however as we. talked about earlier they do want to be. able to contact their kids and then. there are some parents who are concerned. about what teach teach are doing or what.

other kids are doing and they want kids. to be able to videotape their teachers. or videotape a fight as evidence of. problems so there are all kinds of. reasons that some parents do think that. kids should have access to their phones. and then often the kids who have adult. responsibilities their grandmother is. sick and they take care of them after. school or they have a ill sibling or. they have to work and they have a job to. get to they are often the on who need. their phones more because their boss is.

calling them to change their shift or. you know they might have to go to the. hospital they might actually need to. know things during the day and there are. concerns that if you totally block kids. from access to their phones that that. information will be slower or not get to. them and Natasha what about the group. that's going to be most affected by this. band which is the kids what do they. think about this just like schools and. parents teens and children have all. kinds of different feelings and.

different answers we did hear from. dozens of high school students who wrote. in you know when I asked readers to tell. us how they felt and some of them said. they were glad some of them said they. were taking tough courses and it was. really hard to concentrate because other. kids were on their phone some kids. talked about it was really hard to. collaborate with their peers because. nobody wanted to talk to them on an. assignment they wanted to use their. phone others felt like it was really. paternalistic to be required not to use.

their phone that it was not allowing. them to self-regulate and to choose the. moments when they needed to and I also. heard from kids like there worst. problems in school like a high school. student wrote to me from Los Angeles and. said there're drugs in my school why. aren't they Banning that I had other. kids say like this is a necessary step. but I actually don't think it's going to. help so Natasha this brings us to my big. question which is do these bands. actually work are they making kids more.

attentive during class and you know. reducing the social harms that parents. and teachers are all worried about I. think that that is the fundamental. question in this snowballing of cell. phone bands from school to school and. state to state and I think the answer is. we don't know yet there hasn't been a. lot of rigorous Research into the. outcomes and results of these kinds of. bands in school and much of the research. is much more anecdotal than quantitative.

I even got an email this week from a. professor at the University of oxburg in. Germany who just published a new paper. examining the research on cell phone. bands and he concluded that the bands. can definitely at least modestly reduce. cyber bullying in schools but he said we. can't yet say whether the bands. concretely boost academic results or. improve learning in fact he said that. school smartphone banss right now. are based on subjective beliefs and not.

on real scientific evidence and so the. question is if the goal is to try to. help kids have a healthier more creative. relationship to. technology then maybe we have to have a. bigger more holistic effort maybe we. have to do a more intensive job of. helping kids think about all these. fastmm moving digital Innovations and.

what their benefits are and what their. drawbacks are and how they can think. critically about them and navigate. [Music]. them and I think about that personally. because in the Summers I teach high. school students I teach a class and one. of the assignments is they have to pick. an app could be twitch could be. Instagram could be Tik Tok and they have. to both log how much time they spend on. them but also analyze how the apps are.

designed to keep them spending more time. and coming back and like did they have. anxiety if they didn't check it what did. they like did they feel compelled to. like that cuz it was their friends did. they really like that like let's think. about what if instead of rushing to band. phones we helped kids think about the. ways that they might be useful and the. ways that they personally might want to. limit their use of apps and phones. it's much much harder to think about how.

we can give children and teenagers more. agency over these powerful tools they. use and more ability to ask critical. questions about how these devices are. shaping and shunting their lives that's. a much more complicated ask than just. saying lock up your phone during. [Music]. class Natasha thank you thank. [Music].

you we'll be right. back here's what else you should know. today on Sunday the Israeli military. announced it had recovered the bodies of. six Israeli hostages in a tunnel in Gaza. including a dual American Israeli. citizen hirsh Goldberg pollen who's. kidnapping by Hamas on October oober 7th. was the subject of a daily.

episode the military said that the. bodies had been recovered on Saturday. and that Hamas had shot them at short. range 2 to 3 days before they were found. Hamas blamed Israel and claimed more. hostages would be killed if Israel. continued to try to free them through. military means and not through a. ceasefire deal the news brought months. of simmering anger in Israel to a. furious boil much of it directed at. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whom.

critics blame for dragging his feet on a. ceasefire deal that would bring the. hostages back tens of thousands of. workers walked off the job on Monday. morning demanding he strike a deal but. in a news conference later that day. Netanyahu brushed aside the demands. doubling down on his refusal to agree to. a. [Music]. truce on Monday afternoon the funeral. for hirh Goldberg pollen Drew thousands.

of people to a cemetery in Jerusalem. where his mother Rachel Goldberg. delivered an emotional eulogy for her. son H for all these months I have been. in such torment and worry about you for. every single millisecond of every single. day it was such a specific type of. misery that I have never experienced. before I tried hard to. press the missing you part because that.

I was convinced would break. me so I spent 330 days terrified scared. worrying and. frightened Goldberg had become an. international symbol for the struggle to. release the hostages amidst the. inexplicable. Agony Terror anguish desperation and. fear we became absolutely certain that. you were coming home to us.

alive but it was not to. be now I no longer have to worry about. you I know you are no longer in. danger she described how her certainty. that her son would come back alive had. turned to grief and then to a bitter and. painful release finally my sweet boy. finally finally finally finally you're. free. I will love you and I will miss you.

every single day for the rest of my life. but you're right here I know you're. right here I just have to teach myself. how to feel you in a different. [Music]. way today's episode was produced by. Sydney Harper Carlos PR Luke Vander plug.

and Nina Feldman it was edited by Mark. George and Brendan clink Berg contains. original music by Marian Lozano Diane. Wong and Rowan Nimo and was engineered. by Chris Wood our theme music is by Jim. brunberg and Ben Lanser of. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Sabrina tavernes see you tomorrow.