BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The largest school system in the country is thinking about doing the same thing that Florida did, which is to ban students from using cell phones in class. Arkansas is starting a pilot program to get schools to ban cell phones, and Louisiana kids must turn off and store their phones during the school day.
There are several reasons why education and state leaders are taking these steps, but the main ones are worries about how social media use affects learning, how it can lead to problems with discipline, and how it can affect mental health.
Alabama doesn’t have a state policy on this, but this spring, the Alabama State Board of Education passed a resolution strongly encouraging local school boards to make a rule that people can’t use their phones on school grounds.
Dr. Eric Mackey, the state superintendent of schools, said, “I feel very strongly that we need to get rid of cell phones from our classrooms.”
The strict way Dr. Mackey acts is not getting him along with kids or parents, he said.
“So many of our adults are almost dependent on being able to talk to their kids at any time,” Dr. Mackey said.
He said that parents text their kids during the school day. This isn’t the biggest problem with phone use on campus, but Dr. Mackey said it happens a lot and shows how hard it is for towns to enforce restrictions.
“Students, school boards, and parents will all need to work together to find a solution.”
The WBRC looked at the cell phone policies of dozens of school districts and found that Chilton County Schools changed theirs after the SBOE decision. In Chilton County, cell phones can only be used when classes change.
St. Clair County Schools has a tighter rule that says cell phones must be turned off and stored in a locker or backpack from the first bell to the last.
Students at Haleyville City Schools can use their cell phones during times when they are not in class, like lunch. If not, students have to hang their phones in a clear pocket organizer during class. Superintendent Dr. Holly Sutherland says that each middle and high school classroom has one of these binders and that students must put their phones down there before class starts.
“Almost all of our districts have very strict rules about cell phone use in the classroom,” Dr. Mackey said. “A lot of them just tell them, ‘Off your desk, in your pocket, in your backpack, but you can’t have them out.'” “I understand that and think it’s a step in the right direction. However, I believe that overall, it’s not working, and we are seeing a lot of problems across the state when students come out of class and immediately turn on their phones in the cafeteria and during breaks.”
Some of these problems, according to Dr. Mackey, are bullying through text messages or social media and other stresses that are “just too much” for students to handle on social media.
Some students have so much trouble with social media, that Dr. Mackey wants the Alabama Legislature to make it illegal for kids smaller than 13 to join social media. He said that schools should do more than just block social media sites from their Wi-Fi.
“That’s what many schools already do.” “For example, we’ve told schools for a couple of years that they need to block TikTok, but that doesn’t make a difference because students are using their phones, not the school’s Wi-Fi, to access social media,” Dr. Mackey said.
A lot of people across the country are talking about how kids should use social media. Florida passed a law that says kids younger than 14 can’t have social media accounts. A law was passed in New York that stops social media sites from “suggesting” posts to kids. Kids would only see posts from accounts they follow instead. Last month, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to protect kids online. The bill says that social media sites must take “reasonable” steps to keep kids safe.
Dr. Mackey said, “Students are bringing social media, YouTube videos, and TikTok videos into the classroom. These things are distracting, they lead to behavior problems, they cause a lot of confusion, and they take up too much time from our teachers who need to be teaching.”
“The research is very clear,” he said. “When you take cell phones out of the school, discipline problems go down and grades go up.” Now, I think the facts are very clear and support what we’re talking about doing. I also strongly believe that we need to get these cell phones out of our classrooms, and I would encourage both local school boards and the government to take action.