The arguments against student cellphone use at school are explicit, serious, and incontrovertible: They鈥檙e a classroom distraction, an ongoing disruption to users and those nearby, and a conduit for online bullying.
So severe is the perceived risk they pose to students鈥� learning and mental health, that widespread bans on cellphones in schools are taking effect around the globe, with England being the latest to urge a complete ban of the devices by students on school campuses.
Until recently, such a sweeping cellphone ban in U.S. schools would have been unthinkable鈥攁nd not just because decisions related to the nation鈥檚 school systems generally happen at the state and local levels. School officials blame strong opposition to schoolwide cellphone bans primarily on one powerful group of stakeholders: parents.
But that鈥檚 changing.
A committed group of parents are at the forefront of the latest salvo for cellphone-free schools, leading a campaign to ban the devices on K-12 campuses.
Highlighting these efforts is a 鈥渃all to action鈥� sent on Oct. 23 to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, urging him to issue an advisory regarding student cellphone use in K-12 schools. More than 60 advocates鈥攊ncluding experts in the fields of psychology, early-childhood development, education, and technology鈥攕igned the letter. Six of its authors were parents, including Kim Whitman, a Kansas-based parent of two teenagers and co-founder of the Phone Free Schools Movement.
鈥淲e want to encourage a cultural change in our schools so students can be free from the distractions, pressures, and harms that access to phones/social media creates,鈥� said Whitman. 鈥淲e are parents that want to empower other parents.鈥�
Convincing parents that cellphones don鈥檛 keep kids safe at school
At least initially, it might not be easy to convince all parents that a cellphone ban at their children鈥檚 schools is 鈥渆mpowering,鈥� according to school officials who have implemented such policies. School shootings, and the subsequent fear they engender in parents, are far more common in the United States than in the United Kingdom, which has had a total of three in its entire history.
Jose Lebron, the principal at Kensington High School in the Philadelphia school district, is in his eighth year at the school. Soon after he started the job, he put a cellphone ban in place. Parents reacted strongly.
鈥淪hortly after we sent out communication to students and parents [about the ban]鈥攖hat鈥檚 when the uproar began. We were getting inundated with phone calls. Parents were going to their city council; complaints got all the way up to the superintendent鈥檚 office,鈥� he said, 鈥淵ou would have thought the world was going to end.鈥�
But he didn鈥檛 budge. 鈥淚n my years as a principal in Philadelphia, I鈥檝e tried every policy. The only approach that works is to keep phones out of the building, period,鈥� Lebron said.
Safety concerns are chief among parents鈥� complaints, according to Lebron. 鈥淭hey say, 鈥業f something happens, my child needs to get in contact with me,鈥欌�� he said.
In fact, violent incidents at the school have decreased since Lebron instituted the ban. 鈥淪erious incidents [of physical violence] have almost disappeared,鈥� said Lebron, who noted that the only student-initiated fight this year occurred after school hours, blocks from campus, and that student suspensions due to physical confrontations are negligible.
That stands in stark contrast to when Lebron began his job as principal and hadn鈥檛 yet instituted the ban. That first year, a student used his cellphone while at school to communicate with an acquaintance outside the school about an ongoing student conflict. In response, the acquaintance delivered a gun to the school that was intended to 鈥渟ettle鈥� the conflict. The young man was intercepted by school staff and no one was harmed, but the incident further convinced Lebron to institute a schoolwide cellphone ban.
Shifting cultural norms
By now, the school culture around cellphone use has shifted, according to Lebron. 鈥淚t鈥檚 gotten to the point where it鈥檚 accepted,鈥� he said, referring to the total cellphone ban on campus.
Whitman and other parents who support total cellphone bans at schools are hopeful that this cultural shift is expanding.
鈥淓ven in the last few years, I feel parents are so much more aware of the negative impact of cellphones and social media,鈥� said Victoria Dunckley, a child psychiatrist who signed the letter to Cardona.
鈥淲e鈥檙e just getting started,鈥� said Whitman, who has received a response from the Department of Education suggesting a meeting with the authors of the letter and a member of the department鈥檚 senior policy advisory team.
