While the COVID-19 pandemic may be over, school administrators across the country say they’ve found a lingering side effect: Students are more attached to their phones than ever before.
The situation is causing stress, distractions, and in some cases bullying and physical assaults, which is why, The Washington Post reports, educators are fighting back.
Banning cellphone use in school is nothing new. But once kids returned to the classroom after the lockdowns, enforcement was generally more lax, the paper explains, which led to an explosion in use.
So now, schools in California, Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland and Pennsylvania are among those that have banned the devices outright; others are allowing students to carry their phones, but to lock them in signal-blocking pouches that can only be unlocked with a magnetic key — like shoplifting tags at department stores.
Other schools limit the cellphone use to certain times of day.
While many students griped they can’t check in with their parents or coaches for after-school programs, many educators who have enforced the new rules say they’re already seeing an improvement: Kids are actually talking to each other at lunch and recess, as opposed to staring at their devices and sharing memes.
Bill Wilson, a school superintendent in Brush, Colorado, tells the paper nearly all the disciplinary issues he saw last year sprung from beefs on social media started during the school day. Now, he explains, “The majority of our students, when we surveyed them, were thankful for [the restrictions] because it has reduced the stress in their life.”