Governor Sarah Sanders announced in her letter to Arkansas superintendents July 2, 2024, that Arkansas would introduce legislation to create a “much more aggressive plan” to regulate cell phone use in schools after seeing a rise in mental Illness.
Previously, Sanders announced in her Letter to Governors May 9, 2024, that she planned to make a new phone policy. The letter stated that math, reading, and science scores had dropped, while “big tech” companies are “preying on adolescent insecurities and basic human psychology.”
Representatives Jon Eubanks and Sen. Tyler Dees introduced SB 142, also known as the “Bell to Bell, No Cell Act” Jan 29. The bill passed by the Senate Feb 12, therefore, students will not have access to phones during the school day beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, unless there is an emergency. (see document for definition of emergency)
With the phone ban now inevitable, students and teachers are thinking ahead about what this means for their classes and how they will adapt.
Superintendent Jermall Wright talked with the Student Council and AVID classes Dec. 9, 2024, about their opinions on how the campus should handle the proposed phone ban, as each district will choose how they want to enforce the new policy.
Student Body President Colin Sproles said that he is for the phone ban as he believes it will allow students to live more in the moment.
Sproles also agreed with officials about how phones negatively affect teen mental health.
“Being on our phones all day changes the way we think and it’s not good for our eyes. Our generation also doesn’t have good social skills because we don’t talk to people as much when we can text instead,” said Sproles. “I understand that their phone is their way to cope with anxiety, but it shouldn’t be like that. You shouldn’t have to turn to your phone to cope. There should be and there are better ways.”
Several Arkansas school districts have implemented a phone ban using Yondr pouches, which are small, magnetically locking bags meant to prevent students from accessing their phones for the school day, “bell to bell.” Ideally, upon entering the building every morning, students would place their phones into their own Yondr pouch, which would lock automatically. Students would be in possession of their phones for the whole school day, but they would not be able to access the devices unless the magnetic pouch is unlocked. Sanders has not directly proposed the use of Yondr pouches in Arkansas schools.
Sproles pointed out that, similar to clear backpacks and ID badges, new policies like this are hard to implement at a school with approximately 2,300 students.
“What’s the point of the pouch? I feel like it would be dope, but, you know, we saw with the ID badges, people aren’t gonna do it right,” said Sproles. “Students just need to learn to stop getting on their phones and learn to be more present with people in the moment.”
Classes like Sports Media are thinking of potential ways that they will have to work around the phone ban. Teacher Caleb Surly is thinking of requesting new equipment from the district. While the phone ban may cause challenges in the class, Surly believes the pros outweigh the cons.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of cons as it applies specifically to my class. But I do think that there’s a lot of pros to it, because even in a class where it seems like it would be phone based, I’m teaching how to use Photoshop or Adobe Premiere and video editing, where sometimes the phone can actually be a distraction. Phones were not a thing when I was in high school 13 years ago,” Surly said.
Surly, like Sproles, believes that students are not living in the present moment around them.
“We had cell phones, but we weren’t addicted to them like this generation. I’m in support of the ban because it will enhance people’s learning; I mean look at your screen time, It’s a reality check. There’s a lot more in the world, and you’re not going to see the world, learn anything about it, have important conversations, or develop people skills that truly matter if you’re always on your phone,” Surly said.
Students in the class however, are worried that the phone ban may be implemented too quickly, and should be integrated into schools at a slower rate.
“If they want to implement banning phones they need to start it at a younger age, rather than taking phones away from a generation who has always had them. It’s just too hard to start now,” said junior Ava Fugitt, a student in Sports Media. “It’s too much in the black and white going from phones to just no phones.”
English and Creative Writing teacher Shawna Shannon is already successful at keeping her students off their phones in class. After seeing the benefits, she thinks banning phones would allow for success for all teachers.
“In my classroom, I ask that students not use the phone at all. Have the phone put away where I don’t even see it,” Shannon said. “ I think that having phones not accessible during the education day will help students who have personal conflicts because that gets that out of sight and out of mind while they focus on learning.”
On the other hand, a teacher who asked not to be named argues that it is not the state’s job to decide what happens with the phones and teachers should focus on a method that works well for their classroom.
