{"id":5544,"date":"2024-09-12T09:09:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T13:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=5544"},"modified":"2024-09-12T09:09:49","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T13:09:49","slug":"do-it-students-staff-praise-school-cell-phone-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2024\/09\/do-it-students-staff-praise-school-cell-phone-bans.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDo it.\u201d Students, Staff Praise School Cell Phone Bans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lunch is noisy at Ottumwa High School in Ottumwa, IA. Yet, Superintendent Mike McGrory has found it a welcome change after the Ottumwa School District voted to ban cell phone use during school. The district currently only allows phones to be locked up in students\u2019 lockers during school hours, making it the strictest policy in the state of Iowa. \u201cWhat we found is kids could be sitting at a table around their friends, but then they would be texting other people, and you aren\u2019t really, truly there. And then you worry about if you don\u2019t get a text back right away from your other friends,\u201d said McGrory<\/a>. Gateway High School principal Aaron Ruff noted that as an alternative school, many of the school\u2019s students deal with anxiety, something research has shown can be increased by constant cell phone use. \u201cI think that message is coming through a little bit, that, you know, this is for me to be healthy.\u201d The impact of the ban has even extended to homes. \u201cI\u2019ve been hanging out with my family, actually. I\u2019m usually just locked up in my room,\u201d said Gateway freshman, Paizlee Thomason.<\/p>\n

Ruff encourages<\/a> other schools to participate in cell phone bans. \u201cDo it. Do it. It\u2019s not as bad as you think. I think parents are well aware of what cell phones are doing to their kids. They\u2019re seeing it at home. I think parents are behind this.\u201d A group that included students led to the district-wide ban after researching cell phones\u2019 effects on student mental health and educational outcomes. Originally, the program had been implemented in the elementary schools and piloted in a Jr. High. \u201cSo, the question came to us what if we did a district wide ban?\u201d stated Ottumwa High School Principal Shelley Bramchreiber. \u201cWe began a gathering committee with students, community members, staff members, administrators, central office staff and board members. We tried to gather stakeholders from every realm to be part of this committee to see what it would look like in our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cell phone bans at schools are becoming a nationwide trend as more and more schools are seeing positive outcomes from students having less distractions. Jessica Sax, the principal at Hyre CLC of Akron Public Schools in Ohio, shared that students\u2019 better attention was leading to better grades. It has also led to a better social environment. \u201cWe have seen a significant decrease in the number of what we would say were pre-planned fighting where students were texting, messaging each other, talking about going and meeting somewhere in the building or classroom and fights occurring. This is something that is positively impacting our district, positively impacting our students, and I would say this is something we should continue with,\u201d said Sax. New York City, which boasts 900,000 students, is making a push for a city-wide ban, with many schools already enacting their own bans<\/a> without a city policy. Around 350 schools are already enforcing bans in some form or another, with another 500 expected to enact their own bans as well. A city-wide ban could take effect in February, with New York governor Kathy Hochul planning to implement a statewide cell phone policy. New York City public schools Chancellor David Banks<\/a> stated that although bans don\u2019t solve all problems, something has to be done. \u201cWe don\u2019t think it\u2019s a panacea. I don\u2019t think taking phones away is going to mean it\u2019s going to solve all the issues, but we have absolutely seen an increase in mental health issues,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lunch is noisy at Ottumwa High School in Ottumwa, IA. Yet, Superintendent Mike McGrory has found it a welcome change after the Ottumwa School District voted to ban cell phone use during school. The district currently only allows phones to be locked up in students\u2019 lockers during school hours, making it the strictest policy in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":5547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67,23,2,31],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-5544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childrens-health","category-electronics","category-mental-health","category-teens","tag-cell-phones"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cDo it.\u201d Students, Staff Praise School Cell Phone Bans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2024\/09\/do-it-students-staff-praise-school-cell-phone-bans.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cDo it.\u201d Students, Staff Praise School Cell Phone Bans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lunch is noisy at Ottumwa High School in Ottumwa, IA. 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