With the new school year in full swing, students in over 42 states are now attending schools with legislation related to cell phone use, including full-on bans. Proponents of the bans say they will increase students’ focus on academics, reduce problematic social media use, and curtail cyberbullying.
But not all young people agree that cell phone bans in schools are a good idea, and the reasons they give aren’t about wanting to like photos or watch viral videos. I conducted a study of over 450 U.S. high school students, released this week by the non-profit research, youth voice, and venture funding firm Hopelab, where I am a principal researcher. Among the students we polled, 64% supported a ban on cell phones in classes, but only 17% supported all-day bans. And the most-cited reason for opposing cell phone bans wasn’t “I want to get on social media” or “I want to text my friends.”
It was “What happens if there’s a shooter?”
“Anyone can walk into my school and put us into harm, what if I want to text someone and say my goodbye?” one high school girl said in the poll.
This was by far the most common reason, cited by 50% of the high schoolers who opposed all-day bans and 42% of the ones who opposed in-class bans.
Students know that cell phone bans can improve classroom learning: Among those who supported bans, the most-cited reasons for that support were that the bans improved focus and reduced distractions in class. In fact, bans were moresupported by students in schools with bans (in-class bans support was 68% among high schoolers in schools with in-class bans but only 49% among students in schools with no bans; full-day ban support was 22% among high schoolers in schools with full-day bans but only 14% among students in schools with no bans). They know the temptation to go on social media, text message, or use their phones for entertainment in other ways is a problem that bans can help to address.
But these policies exist in a national context of active shooter drills and countless news stories of new school shootings, and an individual context of young people feeling inextricably linked to their phones. Data from the CDC indicates that 1 in 3 young people are on social media at least once an hour, and 44% of young people say they feel anxious when they are separated from their phones. Expecting young people to go cold-turkey from their devices can cause this anxiety to flare up, at least in the short term.
Cell phones are distractions in the classroom–it is widely known that social media companies design their apps to generate compulsion loops in users and make them want to continue using the platforms. But for policies banning phone to be successful and not stoke fear among students, students need to be involved in the policy planning processes at schools so that they can have their concerns heard and addressed, rather than having their concerns dismissed by school administrators as obstinate “headbutting.”
Too often, bans on cell phones are enacted like most other student-facing policies: an edict comes down from above and the students are made to comply. But in an environment where students feel pulled both ways about bans, and have expressed anxiety about not having access to their phones, giving them some agency on the issue is essential to creating policies that they are able to work with and get behind. Hopelab and other youth-focused organizations such as the JED Foundation (a nonprofit dedicated to supporting young people’s mental health and preventing suicide) advocate for continued student input into cell phone ban policies to support buy-in from students. Student input can help schools and districts design policies that support students’ desire for a healthy, engaging learning environment and foster student support for distraction-free classrooms. Student-involved policy planning has been used in schools across the country to include students in designing policies aimed to reduce distractions in the classroom, such as enhancing students’ understanding of digital wellness and over-focus on social media presence, and helps to increase student understanding of the policies and reduce backlash.
And what if those student stakeholders continue to resist the cell phone ban policies? Their concerns can elucidate areas in which school safety policies and procedures are not being adequately communicated clearly to students. Students may not understand how using their phones during a crisis might actually be a distraction, or, at worst, might produce sound and light that leads an active shooter to a hiding location. Harvard sociology professor Carrie James and University of Birmingham professor of physical activity, health and wellbeing Vicky Goodyear have studied phone use and argue that empowering students to be involved in policy development can help them understand and work with policies better than edicts brought down from administration.
Without clear national plans to limit access to guns and monitor firearms (which have been demonstrated to reduce gun violence in countries that enact gun restrictions), young people are caught between their interests in having a distraction-free classroom and their fears of classroom violence. Involving them in the creation of these policies can increase their own buy-in, and help schools to see where planning has fallen short of students’ expectations.
States and cities, hoping for less distractions in classrooms, are asking high schoolers to ditch their phones while also teaching them to shelter in place, huddled together in dark rooms with desks barricading the door. When students imagine that scenario, they aren’t thinking of checking their DMs. They’re wondering if their parents know they love them and wishing for a chance to say it. Cell phone ban policies that are made without student input ignore this visceral fear. Including students in developing cell phone policies is essential to making them feel safe while learning.