Senate committee clears bill to ban or restrict cell phones in school
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) -Mississippi lawmakers are looking to join some other states in reducing a major classroom distraction — cell phones.
Senate Bill 2151 seeks to limit use in public school classrooms.
“For the most part, it’s getting cell phones and social media distractions and emails and text… all the things that kids don’t need to be focusing on during school,” explained bill author Senator Briggs Hopson. “It’s getting that out of their hands so they can focus on their learning and the instructional materials that are given by the teachers.”
Sen. Briggs Hopson’s bill doesn’t specify exactly what those restrictions should include.
“I’m going to leave that up to the school districts,” he said.
However, it does say they would have until January 1 to get a policy in place. If not, they would lose a day’s worth of state funding for each day a policy is not in effect.
However, Hopson doesn’t think that will be an issue.
There are already examples. This year, Marshall County School District started requiring students to lock up their phones until the end of the day, using a special pouch similar to those used in schools across the country. In Pass Christian, students have to either put their phones in their school bags or place them in designated areas before class.
Lauderdale County is another district cracking down.
“Basically, we operate on a see-and-take. If we see it, we take it,” said Superintendent Dr. John Mark Cain.
Cain says there are some exceptions for downtimes, like lunch period, but they’re noticing a difference in the classrooms.
“We said, ‘Hey, we just got to step it up,’ Cmain described. “And [we] asked our admin team to do that, and they got on. Teachers got on board with it, you know. It comes down to consistency from, you know, classroom to classroom, teacher to teacher.”
Parents have had mixed reactions but are supportive overall.
“I think it’s a give and take, but the positives of the restriction have outweighed the negatives,” he added.
SB 2151 has cleared the education committee and will now go to the full Senate for consideration.
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