Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Teachers statewide in New York are calling on state lawmakers in Albany to curb cell phone usage for students in schools, especially in the classroom.
New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and a coalition representing partners in healthcare, child and family advocacy, and law enforcement are urging Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature to support students’ learning and well-being through distraction-free schools.
In September, Gov. Hochul attended NYSUT’s Disconnected Conference, which convened more than 500 educators, students, parents and policymakers to engage in a constructive dialogue on the effects of cell phones, social media and technology on schools.
"We will look back at this time and say we finally saved the next generation of kids, and it all started in a room like this right here in Albany," Gov. Hochul said three months ago.
The union further adds New York needs to provide consistent, statewide restrictions on cell phone use during the school day in order to safeguard students’ mental health, and to support authentic learning experiences in public schools.
Related
Marc Bruno, a local teacher at Riverside High School, is happy NYSUT is pushing this initiative, feeling it's long overdue.
"It's very hard, as a teacher, to compete with cell phones," said Bruno in an interview with WBEN. "There are some teachers who use cell phones in their classroom, so you can't paint everyone with one brush. There might be people who support keeping them, but I'll say this: Screen time in general, there's a lot of studies out now that say, if you're a young person - 6-, 7-, 8-years old - and you have two-and-a-half hours or more of screen time per day, you're 51% more likely to have anxiety and depression as a young adult and an adult. That means one out of every two, and we're only talking two-and-a-half hours of screen time. And I think kids nowadays, between video games and their cell phones, they're getting 10, 11 hours of screen time, and I think it's really, really bad. I think we're starting to see it affects just how students interact with people. So I'm very supportive of of the move."
Bruno says it's a constant battle with students in the classroom, asking them to put their phones away and focus on the lesson being discussed for the day.
"A lot of times, I'll try and use as much diplomacy as I can. 'Hey, please put it away.' The second time, 'Hey, please give it to me.' But sometimes you'll get really rude remarks back, and then it turns into a battle in the classroom, then you have to call security and that could waste 5-to-10 minutes, and then the whole class is disrupted. So it's a serious problem, and I think that's why you're finally starting to see some pushback on students having them," Bruno noted.
Where Bruno's biggest concern lies is how school districts across the state will be able to enforce no cell phones in the classroom.
"You're going to have probably some people speak out against this. I know a lot of parents want to have access to their son or daughter at school, but I grew up in a time - I'm 49 - where there was a pay phone in my school. If you needed to get a hold of a student, you call the office. We've functioned for most of modern history without having cell phones," Bruno said. "I think it can be done, but I think, initially, there'll be some pushback."
Bruno feels cell phones are public enemy No. 1 in education right now, which is why he hopes parents understand where teachers and educators are coming from.
"We just cannot compete with cell phones in the school," he added. "If you were 15 or 16, would you rather be listening to an algebra lesson, or would you be scrolling on social media? I think most people that age would be doing the latter. So it's definitely a huge problem. It's probably the most significant problem, one of them in education today."
Another concern Bruno has is with the government getting involved in this matter. While he's glad the teachers union is starting to put some pressure on Albany, he does fear that when the government gets involved, sometimes it could be a paper tiger.
One initiative that has been implemented by schools across the nation is utilizing Yondr pouches, which are magnetically secure bags that store mobile devices and create phone-free spaces. One of the districts in Western New York that is currently utilizing such phone pouches is the Lackawanna City School District.
Related
Bruno says Riverside High School was one of the test schools for the Yondr pouches last year. While it worked for a while, the students learned by going on the internet how to break open the pouches. Once that happened, the pouches were ineffective.
"My kind of thing to Yondr pouch is, 'Hey, build a better Yonder pouch for schools. You were designing a Yondr pouch for a two- or three-hour concert, mainly for adults, not for teenagers in high school who are dying to get into that cell phone,'" Bruno added. "We actually did try it in the beginning of last year, and there were no cell phones the first couple weeks, it did make a huge difference. But then once they figured out how to break into them, then it kind of all fell apart. So it's tough."
If the Yondr pouches are not going to work, Bruno feels there then should be some sort of special locker for students to lock their phones in for the day.
"There are school districts that I've heard of that had these little mini cell phone lockers, and that's how you would do it. But then the big question is, what if a student refuses? Is there a consequence? Calling home and talking to the parent, in schools like mine, that doesn't always work," he noted.
In recent months surrounding the discussion over cell phone bans in schools, many administrators feel it should be up to the individual school districts to decide whether or not to implement such a ban on students.
However, Bruno argues it's important to have district leaders, as well as teachers and parents all on the same page to achieve the goal of educating students, and making sure students are prepared to enter the real world beyond grade school.
"I think the big thing that I would say to all of my colleagues is those screen time studies, I really would hope New York State United Teachers brings that up," Bruno noted. "Screen time, two-and-a-half hours or more per-day for young children, one out of every two is most likely going to have anxiety and depression if they get into three, four, five, six hours of screen time as young adults and adults. How could we possibly, as a society, allow that to happen?
"As parents, as union members, as teachers, as school boards, this is damaging our children. It's just like having lead in the water, to me. You're poisoning their mind with these devices, and I think we're so used to them now, as this device we cannot do without, that we're kind of missing the big picture. These devices, too much of it is damaging our children, severely damaging them, and maybe damage that will be with them for the rest of their lives. I think that's what the government has to focus on, what the union has to focus on, school boards, educators. We understand these are hard to live without, but they're actually hurting our children. We can't sit by any longer and allow that to continue to happen."