As a growing list of Oklahoma districts consider cell phone bans, the issue of a statewide mandate has been on lawmakers’ radars. Last spring, state legislators mulled over a bill to offer incentives to schools that implemented phone-free policies, but it never advanced from the Senate. At the time, some members said they favored an outright ban and didn’t want to spend money on an incentive program.
In September, Gov. Kevin Stitt issued a “Phone-Free Schools Challenge,” directing participating districts to share their phone restriction policies with his administration to inform a best practices report to be prepared before the next legislative session.
The movement is accelerating nationally — eight states have enacted state-level school phone restrictions.
Experts testified on the detrimental effects of constant cell phone use for adolescents, including increased impulsivity, hindering of brain development, higher instances of bullying and negative self-image issues, and frequency of distractions leading to worse academic outcomes.
Superintendents from several Oklahoma school districts presented at the two-day study, all of which have implemented cell phone bans or restrictions. All said they have seen, at least anecdotally, positive results in student behavior, teacher morale and academics.
On both days, concerns were voiced over a potential state mandate usurping local control. Superintendent Jeremy Jackson of Pocola Public Schools said districts are looking to the legislature to provide some support against parent pushback with cell phone-free policies.
“We need your help, just to help those administrators or superintendents in those districts where it is not as welcome,” Jackson said. “The data is all there. We have the experience. We have the information. We just need a little bit of help getting that pushed through the — across the finish line.”
Sen. Kristen Thompson (R-Edmond) said she was “happy to be the tip of the spear” in addressing community opposition.
“That’s what I tell all the districts inside District 22: I am fine with people calling and yelling at me about this because I think it is absolutely that important,” Thompson said.
Senate Education Committee Chair Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) said he spoke to David Vinson, superintendent of Warner Public Schools, which has had a cell phone ban for more than a decade. According to Pugh, Vinson told him he first thought he might lose his job over the policy, but the community eventually saw the benefits.
Pugh said other superintendents have told him they don’t feel like they can enact a ban on their own. Between that and the mounting body of research on cell phone use negatively impacting young people, he said it’s time for the state to step in.
“I felt like this was a crisis to the level where the state had to have some guardrails put around [the] use of phones in schools,” Pugh said.
Fort Gibson Superintendent Scott Farmer said although he’s seen success with his district’s cell phone ban, he doesn’t believe in a statewide mandate. Instead, he supports legislation to incentivize schools.
“I think we have to be careful as a state to think that a top-down approach prescription is a total fix,” Farmer said. “I think I know my community better than any of you. And having those conversations with [the high school principal] and with our board and with our parents, and letting them have some control, makes the difference.”
Much of the community pushback comes from parents concerned about an inability to access their children throughout the school day, said Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and chief of Stanford University’s Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.
“What we’ve seen is a kind of strange and escalating anxiety and codependence between parents and their kids that makes parents feel they need to constantly be in contact with their kids, even though we’ve survived many generations without that,” Lembke said.
Shelley Overholt teaches Spanish at Tuttle Public Schools and presented Tuesday. She said one of her biggest classroom problems is parent interruption for non-emergencies.
“Most of the time, our interruptions with our cell phone is a parent calling because a parent saw they were tardy or grades got put in and their grades weren’t what they were supposed to be, or they didn’t push the trash can down like they were supposed to in the morning, or they didn’t drop somebody off at school like they were supposed to,” Overholt said.
Pugh said he would again carry a bill during the next legislative session for a statewide school cell phone restriction and is open to making it customizable for individual districts.
“I know that every school district is going to tackle this a little bit differently, and I think trying to find a way to have some state involvement here — to what degree is what we’re exploring,” Pugh said. “And that may look like, we have kind of a baseline of ‘This is what the state would like,’ and then school districts come back and say, ‘Okay, this is how we’re going to implement this.’”
Sen. Julie Daniels (R-Bartlesville) said she wants schools to implement “bell-to-bell” bans and looks forward to upcoming legislation.
“Every single presenter and every graph we saw tell me even more than we need to be a leader on this,” Daniels said.
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