When students return to Garnet Valley High School this week, English teacher Deb Knox will make her now-customary announcement: Students are not allowed to use their cell phones in class.

Still, she expects to notice the inevitable signs that the rule isn’t being followed: eyes cast downward, thumbs at lap height when typing.

Knox, who has been a teacher for 26 years, says her students are “respectful kids,” but she can’t fight the lure of smartphones and teens’ urge to check text messages and social media.

Given the way social media apps are designed to grab attention, “there’s no way they can ignore it,” Knox said.

Teachers like Knox have been battling cellphone distraction for years, but this year there’s a push in Pennsylvania to limit students’ tech use in a screen-saturated environment – whether through a complete cellphone ban, a requirement that students go without their devices during class, or restrictions on Chromebooks and even smartwatches.

Driven by plans to ban cell phones in major cities like New York and Los Angeles and an influential book published in March, The fearful generationwhich claims that the rise in mental illness among young people is due to the trend toward a “phone-based childhood,” some districts in the Philadelphia area are trying new ways to control the constant distraction of phones – with parent groups often leading the way in calling for new restrictions.

Politicians are heeding the call: This summer, Pennsylvania passed a law that allows school districts to receive $100 million in grants to purchase lockable cell phone bags if they agree to ban cell phones during the school day. Pennsylvania is one of at least 11 states that have taken action to restrict cell phone use in schools.

“I feel like there’s a real movement — not just in Pennsylvania, but across the country, Republican and Democratic governors,” said Senator Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), who initiated the new law. “It’s kind of gathering momentum on its own.”

Yet in many communities, parents, teachers and school administrators still argue about what role schools should play in keeping children’s attention in a society where phones are an integral part of daily life.

Schools must take the initiative to get children away from their phones, parents say

Parents involved in the growing cellphone-restriction movement say they know schools are not responsible for the ubiquity of cellphones or the addictive nature of social media. But they say schools need to set a good example.

“I feel like the more we give kids space without cell phones, the less necessary they are to their social significance,” said Jen Panaro, a parent in the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District. “School is the single, best place where all the children in the community are together, and it can have the greatest impact on a cultural shift that reduces the ubiquity of cell phones and social media in our children’s lives.”

Panaro and her husband had tried not to give their son a cellphone, but when he entered sixth grade last year, “it was a kind of social suicide,” she says. They initially gave him a phone without internet, but switched to an iPhone halfway through the school year – in part because he couldn’t use the apps his school used for single sign-on purposes.

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Although Panaro still sets limits for her son – he has no social media – she worries that cellphones will take up more space in his life. Earlier this year, she and other Unionville-Chadds Ford parents who are pushing for cellphone-free schools met with five of the district’s six principals; in June, they presented their findings to the school board. (A district spokesperson said they plan to “study the impact of cellphones in our classrooms and make recommendations for changes if appropriate.”)

In Haverford Township, Dario Mescia isn’t ready to give his eldest daughter a cell phone, but he gave in and bought her a smartwatch last year when she was in fourth grade. “All her friends had them,” he says. “She felt a bit like an outsider.”

Mescia has since heard from his daughter’s teachers that even the watches are a distraction. He’s also concerned that the devices are hindering social development – he mentions “device Fridays” during middle school lunch periods, when kids can “just stare at their phones” instead of talking to each other.

Mescia, who worries about the anxiety that comes with social media use and phone calls, started a petition in June to ban cellphones from Haverford schools. He is frustrated that the district has not taken stricter measures — such as leaving it up to high school teachers to decide whether students need to keep their phones in a designated area during class.

Although Mescia says most parents he has spoken to are on board with the idea of ​​restrictions, many are pessimistic that any changes will actually happen – simply because of the “proliferation of cell phones.”

The logistics of total telephone bans

Aument, a father of a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old who are grappling with technology use themselves, said he was motivated to introduce a bill after hearing from teachers that cell phones were “the biggest problem in classroom management” for them.

Many teachers are hesitant to take away their students’ phones for fear of being held liable, said Aument, who believes a policy solution is needed. Although he initially considered a “more heavy-handed” proposal to ban cell phones altogether, “I felt there was no real consensus in the education community on this yet.”

But even the bags could be a hard sell. State officials say it’s too early to know how many counties will apply for grants to buy cell phone cases; the application deadline opened Aug. 8.

Numerous local school district leaders said they were not interested in the bags. “In my professional opinion, it’s a ridiculous idea,” said Jim Crisfeld, superintendent of the Wissahickon School District. “Kids come to school with their cell phones – who’s going to oversee that and make sure everyone puts their phone in a bag?”

Wissahickon High School students are already required to place their phones in cell phone hotels hanging on the door or wall when they enter the classroom. They pick them up when they leave and can use them in the hallways and during lunch periods.

“If the problem we’re trying to solve is reducing distraction during class, I think we’re making great progress in Wissahickon,” Crisfeld said. “If the problem we’re trying to solve is social media addiction, we’re not going to solve that with interventions in the school environment.” He called the debate “another example of how society is, in some ways, putting the burden on schools to find a solution.”

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In Norristown, where the district also doesn’t rely on bags, Superintendent Christopher Dormer noted how important cell phones have become to school operations: To go to the bathroom, for example, Norristown students use an electronic hall pass app that tracks how long they’re absent from class. Dormer also worried about whether the children will be able to call 911 in an emergency.

Mastery Schools, a charter network of 24 schools in Philadelphia and Camden, doesn’t allow elementary and middle school students to use phones at all during the day. In high schools, students aren’t allowed to use phones during class, but often take them out at lunch.

Still, Mastery doesn’t collect cell phones or require students to lock them. “We know they have cell phones,” said Saliyah Cruz, Mastery’s chief equity officer. “I’m not sure banning cell phones in 2024 is a good use of people’s energy.”

During Rowan Arthur’s four years at Philadelphia High School for Girls, where she graduates Monday, phone policies have changed from a trust system that required students to keep their phones stashed away to a requirement that phones be stored in lockable Yondr bags – a rule that was eliminated last year but is now being reinstated.

Arthur is disappointed – not because she wants to use her phone; with so many college classes, she doesn’t have time to browse Instagram. But for her, requiring students to lock their phones is “over-surveillance,” she says.

Plus, by Arthur’s 10th grade year, the bags had been useless for a few months after school started, she said, and social media was full of tips on how to get rid of them. “You’d come to school and hear the Yondr bags on the tapping board,” Arthur said.

Mobile phone bans vs. education?

Others say schools should focus on teaching children how to live in an increasingly online world, rather than excluding them from it.

“We need to start educating kids: These social media companies are manipulating them,” said Marc Bertrando, Garnet Valley’s superintendent. “Once teens know someone is trying to trick them, the situation changes quickly.”

Bertrando acknowledged that students’ use of phones and social media is a growing challenge for schools. Students at Garnet Valley School have created fake accounts for teachers, similar to the middle school students at Malvern School who drew national attention for posting degrading impersonations of their teachers on TikTok.

A district committee of teachers, administrators, parents and students will try to address these issues this year. Fearful generation and developing a plan to “develop students’ digital discipline,” Bertrando said – including a uniform approach to mobile phone use.

However, he does not believe that restricting access to technology will put an end to the abuse. “How do you teach a child to be independent, self-reliant, disciplined, and to recognize what is real and what is biased – all of these skills that we need as adults?” Bertrando asked.

Although the Upper Darby School District is implementing a new cell phone restriction policy this year—students in grades K-8 are not allowed to use cell phones at any time of the day, while high school students are prohibited from doing so during class—the district will not lock or confiscate students’ phones. Instead, the new rule is being framed as a lesson; since July, the district has been asking students to practice not using their phones for longer each week.

“We try to teach social responsibility,” said Superintendent Daniel McGarry.