Hillsborough schools to restrict student cellphone use
Hillsborough County Schools on Tuesday joined other districts in adopting a cellphone policy aimed at minimizing distractions and disruptions from digital devices on campus.
The detailed policy generally requires phones to be stashed away and placed on silent by students in the younger school years, and used only during lunch and passing periods in the older grades. Teachers can make exceptions when they wish to use phones during instruction. There are also exceptions for students who use their smartphones or watches for medical needs.
Board members approved the policy unanimously after a long discussion that followed more than a year of similar discussions in work sessions.
Members Lynn Gray and Nadia Combs have supported strict rules, saying phones are harmful to students’ mental health and are too often used for illicit purposes, such as organizing fights on and off campus or sexting.
“The problems with phones are huge,” Combs said. “When we talk about the issues of violence, the issue of profanity ... these phones are a huge issue. When I see a child who’s having a seizure and everybody is videotaping it instead of doing something, it’s time to take action.”
Other members have worried that parents will rebel and perhaps remove their children from district-run schools, if the rules are too strict.
Parents and staff were surveyed about cellphone use in the fall of 2023. The results illustrated a sharp divide: A third of parents thought students should have free access to their phones, compared with only 3% of teachers and administrators.
In 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 77% of U.S. schools said they prohibit cellphones at school for nonacademic use.
But that number does not indicate how often students are following those rules, or how the schools enforce them.
Board members asked Shaylia McRae on Tuesday what feedback she has received when discussing cellphones with school principals.
McRae said the views are mixed. In schools that have banned phones, “they do have less disruptions, because the phone is a disruption,” she said. But when schools allow phone use at lunch as a reward for good behavior, children do not abuse the privilege.
“They are not using it for riffraff,” she said.
There are also ways to use phones to read QR codes when voting for class president or quizzing students on new material.
“There are various ways where phones can be used in an appropriate way,” McRae said. “We want to prevent the inappropriate use of phones.”
The adopted policy allows principals to be more strict than the district requires, if they choose. It also prohibits the use of devices with cameras in restrooms and locker rooms.
School cellphone policies have already been adopted in Pinellas and in Pasco for the coming year. They have been adopted in other districts, too, in concert with a state law giving teachers more authority to control their classrooms.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, at a news conference in Orlando early in the day, told reporters Florida is ahead of other states in restricting school phone use.
“Now states across the country are recognizing it’s better for the students and doing that,” he said. “It’s also much better for teachers. "
At the Hillsborough meeting, board member Gray expressed similar thoughts.
”As a former teacher, I absolutely cannot imagine teaching with cellphone competition,” she said.
