Why School Districts are Banning Smart Phone Usage by Children
- 10 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Smart phone usage by students are a problem in the public school system and it's prompting cell phone bans across our country.
I remember when I was in high school, our school had a strict cell phone ban. I had to use my parents' cell phone one day at school and I was so afraid that their flip phone would get taken away by a school staff member. I kept it in my bag and out of sight.
Today, this problem is far worse: the use of cell phones in schools by students are making the news all too often. Students are disrupting classroom activities, using their phones to cheat on tests and in-class assignments, and even using them to bully other kids or even teachers while in class, using them to socially organize. Even so, despite the regular reports of the problems associated with smart phone usage by students, there is uproar about cell phone bans from parents. Even while kids are using their phones to explicitly cheat, parents are still objecting to such bans -- even enabling their children to surrender a fake burner phone instead of their actual smart phone. Why is that? It's a pretty simple solution: ban cell phones. When children are at school, they must follow the rules, including rules that may prohibit the use or possession of a smart phone.
It may seem unclear about why schools and states would create such extreme and drastic laws. According to this video, it costs Texas $20 million tax payer dollars to implement the yodr pouch phone ban system. However, we as a society should support school cell phone bans and here's why.
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The smart phone chaos occuring in the public school system highlights Faux DINK parenting, which enables the bad behaviors of children
This is a lack of parenting issue.
The cellphone problem happening in the public school system can be simplified to the lack of parenting and discipline. Bans would not be necessary if parents simply told their children to follow the school rules, including keeping their cell phone away during class time.
Part of the school system's responsibility is to "prepare students for the real world", right? Children need to be taught that they cannot have 'round the clock access to a device. There are countless situations that adults encounter where we have to put our phone away. For example: during a movie at a movie theater, at a comedy show, while driving a car, when at work, during a Church service, or when sitting in a collage class. Or, many jobs do not allow cell phone usage. It is also a terrible habit to scroll on devices at the dining table when sharing a meal with other people.
Children should not have smart phones to begin with
Kids that younger than 16 really shouldn't have a cell phone to begin with and it is terrible parenting to provide a phone to a child. It is like a parent buying a pack of cigarettes for their 14 year old. Or a parent buying a motorcycle (E bike) for their 12 year old with no helmet or instructions about basic road safety.
The ever growing mountain of evidence suggests that smart phones should only be tools for adults, given that their extensive usage is harmful to children and teens. The news cycle is filled with stories involving minor children that got into some kind of trouble with a cell phone, as well as an unending parading of studies showing that device usage harms children. These reports should not be ignored! They are participating in deadly, illegal and often preventable accidents and crimes that are related to the use of smart phone apps that parents provide them, such as participating in sometimes deadly TikTok challenges. Adult predators are successfully able to groom children because they are able to circumvent parents by contacting children directly via smart phones. Children are also using smart phone apps to make school shooting threats. It is a parenting choice to provide your children with access to a phone, which enables all of these situations.
The way to prevent children from participating in dangerous and illegal activities, such as these is to not provide them with the access in the first place. But since parents are choosing to be neglectful Faux DINKs, society and the government must then assume the role of a parent by taking the smart phones away from students, at least while in the care of tax payer funded educators.
Schools are 100% legally able to make any rules and policies whether you agree with them or not. If you don't like the schools making rules that you do not agree with, you should boycott the public school system by finding another education option and stop funding them. There are many public school policies that we do not agree with including medical tyranny and Indoctrination.
Children are using cell phones to cheat on their assignments
If you truly believe in public education and that it should not be a form of babysitting, how should schools respond to this chronic problem?
Again, this is a parenting issue. Students are required to write essays in school, take tests and answer math questions. There must be integrity behind everyone's work in order for it to be accepted. In the world of Artificial Intelligence, students are very obviously not doing their assignments. They are having a computer do the work while schools pass children along to the next grade and graduate illiterate adults.
Maybe the school assigns homework so that parents can help manage the integrity of assignments. But that is not enough, is it? While it is wildly known that students are using AI to cheat, there is still an outright disdain for school rules about putting phones away.
Parents are texting their children about silly things during class time
These situations are super dumb but still worth discussing. I have a teen and he takes regular classes during the school year. I cannot imagine contacting him for any reason while he is in his homeschool math class, summer camp or while in his martial arts class. He obviously is there to be in the class and he needs to focus on learning. Texting kids for silly reasons that can wait is one of the reasons behind the cell phone bans at schools.
"But what about an Emergency?!"
(An emergency on the parents end)
Parents have access to school officials in case of a true emergency. For example, maybe mom and dad are in a car accident and the child needs to be picked up by grandma early. That message would be communicated to a school administrator. And if school administrators are not able to handle such emergencies, you should bring it up to your school officials and school board instead of campaigning that your child have 'round the clock access to their smart phone apps during class time. Kids do not need a cell phone: there are no "emergencies" which would require a student to have cell phone.
Parents are using school shootings as an excuse to be able to contact their children
(An emergency on the schools end)
If you feel your chid's school is so dangerous that your child needs an instant access communication device (a phone), you should pull them out of that place -- not insist that every kid have an emergency communicator. This issue is a smoke screen for the real one: this problem isn't really about being able to contact your child during a crisis, its about parents enabling the bad behaviors of their children and also wanting to have a convenience. Parents are enabling this behavior, and schools lack the ability to police smart phone usage during school hour, so we should just ban cell phones, rather than trying to implement a complicated error prone system, such as yondr, for storing devices.
We are supporters of providing a flip phone to your child.
Why don't you give your child a dumb phone instead? Just a flip phone with the ability to call or text? A non-smart phone would provide the same access to your child without all the distracting, illegal and dangerous apps for minor children. Your child would keep it in their backpack and you would still be able to contact them in an emergency. Children could check the phone periodically during class breaks. However, many parents will not do this because the issue is not about communicating in case of an emergency, it's about a lack of parenting and lack of teaching discipline.
If smart phones were really about being able to contact children in the case of an emergency, "cell phone culture" would not be the problem
If the smart phones are for emergencies, then why do we see the "cell phone culture" so prevalent among children to begin with? Too often, children play on smart phones at restaurants, at the grocery store, at playdates and other places where children should be "present", and they are using them to do the same in school. "Socializing" on Roblox has replaced board game meetups and playdates.
Click here to see more about the dangers of giving a child a smart phone
There is a simple solution to all of this: ban cell phones at school or do not allow them except in the case of a real emrgency
Tell your children to put away their phone during class time and there won't be a problem. Tell your child that they must follow the rules of the school. Duh!
