School districts, students, teachers and parents all over the country are trying to figure out appropriate cellphone policies as the coming school year approaches.
Most school districts have rules against cellphone usage, but students, parents and teachers that WRAL News has spoken with say one rule isn’t enough.
“I feel like we don’t get as much done,” Heritage High School student Kaitlyn Resar said.
Apex High School student Daniel Towery echoed Resar’s sentiments.
“Some kids are using it to play on their phones and not pay attention,” Towery said.
“It can be addictive and take a toll on mental health,” said Rolesville High School student Morgan Warren.
Phones in classrooms cause distractions, bullying and cheating. Those problems have led states, municipalities and school districts to act.
In July, the Wake County Board of Education heard a proposal to ban cellphones in district classrooms.
The Wake County school board doesn't have a district-wide policy on cellphones. Instead, it lets individual schools determine cellphone policies and enforcement. Many schools ban them from being used in classrooms. But a ban can mean different things at different schools.
One school could ban them and require students to check them into a pocket or box at the beginning of the school day or at the beginning of a class. Another school could ban them but not require students to turn them in at all, leading students to continue to use them during class and teachers to enforce the rules while trying to teach.
Six Chatham County Schools volunteered to use Yondr pouches for the 2024-25 school year. The schools are Seaforth, Jordan Matthews, Chatham Middle, George Moses Horton, Margaret B. Pollard Middle School and ONE Academy. Yondr is a company that uses pouches to create phone-free spaces for artists, educators, organizations and individuals. It works by kids locking up their phones in the pouches during the school day and using special magnets to unlock the pouches when class is over.
Warren County Schools is no longer going to use 1,000 Yondr pouches for the 2024-25 school year. The district was initially planning to use the pouches this school year.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaves it up to each principal’s discretion. Typically, they can be used between classes or lunch but during the instructional day, students are not be allowed to use their phones during class time.
Rock Hill Schools bans personal cell phones from being out. Students and teachers can’t use them at all, even between classes.
In 2022, Burke County Schools adopted a cellphone policy that bans students from using them in classrooms during instruction time, unless they are being used for instructional purposes.
On April 4, state Sens. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, and Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, Lee and Sampson, filed Senate Bill 485.
The bill calls for a study on cellphone policies in schools throughout North Carolina.
Specifically, the study would collect and analyze:
- Whether policies are implemented by the governing board of the public school system or at the individual school level.
- What the cell phone policy is, and specifically if the school uses any of the following policies:
- Complete ban on cell phone use or possession at school.
- Storage of cell phones in a secure location during the instructional day.
- No cell phone restrictions.
- The impact of the policy on learning.
- The impact of the policy on cyberbullying.
- The impact of the policy on school safety.
- Any other information the Department of Public Instruction or consultant agencies deem relevant to the study.
In July, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Virginia, issued a new executive order that will limit or ban cell phone use in public schools.
Like Virginia, several states have banned phones in public schools. It includes Florida, Indiana, Louisiana and South Carolina.
Some parents resist a cellphone ban, saying they need to be able to communicate with their kids.
“I think the problem is, the fear is substantiated, the fear is pervasive,” said Ramon Wycoff, a parent with a child at Southeast Raleigh High School.
The fear stems from lockdowns due to nearby criminals, nearby shootings and threats communicated to schools.
Nationwide data might say parents are overreacting when they feel the need to reach their child, but it doesn’t change the feeling. The anxiety also affects kids.
“When you take it away from them, they feel like you just took my best friend, or my connection to the world,” said Dr. Danielle Keyton, a psychiatrist at WakeMed.
Many kids are connected to the world through their phones and social media.
Doctors and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy don’t think kids are ready for access to social media and many lawmakers agree.
“You have a product that is killing people,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in February.
School districts across the country are suing social media companies, including Wake County. The suit argues schools have had to handle the fallout of psychological damage caused by their apps.
