Cellphone bans in middle and high schools across the U.S. are raising questions about how effective locking away students’ devices on the heels of a pandemic — when classroom instruction was all but virtual — will be.
The no-phones policies have swept across school districts in waves after educators noticed that students were “glued to their devices” upon returning to the classroom following the easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
Administrators have taken action in many states. In central Florida, for example, a school board moved to prohibit cellphones throughout the day — even during lunch periods. In a school district in Alabama, students must now lock away their phones in magnetically sealed pouches prior to the start of the school day.
