In current news, Governor Spencer Cox worked with other state officials to introduce legislation that would build off the 2025 bill SB 178 that restricted cellphone usage to passing periods and lunch. This new policy would prohibit phones from “bell-to-bell.” Schools across America have decided to hold our hands, regarding our cell phone usage. Cell phones have been questioned since they have existed. Questions of usefulness and addiction are still prevalent to this day. In this article we will discuss how the school system is trying to control cellphone usage, why, the results, and how to improve your relationship with your phone.
A problem today that modern teens have is cell phone regulation. However, instead of being allowed to self-regulate and make a healthy relationship with guidance, as ~40% of kids will [2], schools have decided to take parenting into their own hands. Schools all around the U.S. have implemented phone restriction laws. In most Texas schools students are mandated to place their personal devices into a specialized sleeve that can only be unlocked at lunch, passing periods, or even until the end of the day at special unlocking stations.[3] Here in Utah we had a law recently introduced where students are not permitted to use their phones during class-time that has affected the 2025-26 school year. However, a new bill has been introduced to make it prohibited to be on your phone “Bell to Bell.”
The why to these policies are in place is complicated. However, most of the reasons can be boiled down to three main points: reduced classroom distractions, improving student behavior and mental health, and increased academic performance. The first reason is great in theory, cellphones can be distracting it is the notifications, a show is updating, or even just the temptation of device. When you come to school, you are expected to learn with minimal distractions which phones do not always help. The second reason is amazing intent, rarely do we see school systems try to genuinely care about student mental health. Phones do impact how students behave and how they talk to each other, which often can be negative while behind a screen, and with how addicting phones can be, they affect mental health as well. It is reasonable to want to restrict phone usage for the sake of students. For the last point, this can be true. Since phones can increase distraction and decrease learning, banning phones could hypothetically improve performance.
The undeterred spirit of teenage rebellion has not been quelled due to these implementations. The students in Texas who have had to place their personal devices into pouches, have been reported to break the pouches or even use burner phones to take the place of their personal one. Here in our Utah schools, students just do not seem to care about the policy, as they can be seen on their phones at almost any point during the day. The efficacy of these policies is almost nothing when you realize that the reasons they were put in place can be proven to be nuanced. While phones may increase classroom distraction, so can anything else. People walking in the halls increase distraction, conversations cause distraction; students will be distracted almost no matter what. The second reason had amazing intent but poor execution, while students are talking to each other more, this has strained earlier relationships. Students will be mean no matter what, with a phone or without. I, the author has been made fun of even with the policy in place. Taking away phones to improve the interaction between peers, also can restrict it. Many students have friends who go to different schools, have graduated, or have even moved away. Limiting phone use cuts off those connections for a majority of the day. The last reason is complicated, while students could do their school assignments without their phone, it brings up a lot of complications. A lot of students like to listen to music or watch videos while they do their work and makes them more productive. Phones are also a pocket encyclopedia, while the same research can be done on both a phone and a computer, doing research on a phone just seems easier, considering it is typically within your reach. Students will continue to use their phones wether you allow them to or not.
An anonymous person stated, “The policy has just made me become the phone police.” – A statement shared by many.
Phones are a tool, one that can be addicting but also one of the greatest inventions of the modern world. Two sides of the same coin. Phones should not out right be taken away as it limits communication between students and their peers, parents, and leaders. The Davis High Stage Crew uses Microsoft Teams to communicate with one another when we are in various places like throughout the school, auditorium, or even at home. Without our phones we would lack this communication and be much less efficient. Phones also grant knowledge that previously came slowly or did not exist. Although books are still magnificent forms of knowledge, that does not negate the simplicity and ease of asking a search engine the same question and getting a result instantly. However, despite the community and information that our devices may bring, they can be addicting, just like anything else, without moderation. A healthy relationship will not be built by going cold turkey with our phones and simply will only increase the want for our phones. Citing John Hopkins medicine, “Reduce the apps you use…create a schedule for yourself.” [4] A healthy relationship with our phones starts with the people using them. A few steps that the Mental Heath First Aid recommends is setting app time limits, creating a schedule, turning off non-essential notifications, and “cleaning up” your home screen by removing distracting apps. The main way to improve your relationship with your phone is by doing steps you can do yourself. Around 50-57% of Americans already admit to feeling addicted to their phones [5], and the first step of quelling any addiction is admitting it to yourself. While it sucks to stand by and watch the people you care about struggle with addiction, if you try to force them into recovery without them admitting to it, it will be met with backlash and hesitation.
I did not mind the original cell phone policy; in fact, it was like normal school. Most teachers already had students place their phones into cellphone holders and they were not allowed to use them without granted permission. This policy only reinforced that, most students and teachers saw the benefits of this policy, and only the students with previous phone usage issues were the ones to rebuke this policy, to which they were a loud minority. The new policy will cause issues, as previously stated in the article.
The intentions may be great, but the results speak for themselves. The school system trying to parent kids will lead to poor results and students’ levels of distrust to their teachers and administrators, growing more. While the intentions behind phone bans come from a good place, the results they cause and the unintended consequences that follow, raises a need for further discussion about the policies we are putting in place. We need to listen more closely to the people that policies like this affects, that be the students, parents, teachers, and even administrators. There is a way to implement policies like these for the previously stated reasons as staying off phones improve attention span, mental health, workplace skills, and more. Even those in the workforce can be on phones during breaks, if you want teenagers and young adults to be successful in the future, treat us like those already in workforce.
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