Education leaders are worried about cellphone use in schools, but they say the choice of banning them or not isn’t the question school leaders should be asking.

Banning cellphones is too simplistic of a solution, and leaving everything as it is won’t help with the layers of concerns had by most adults about teens’ use of mobile technologies.

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That was the opinion of educators, policymakers and experts who convened Thursday during the Friday Institute’s forum, Real Issues, Real Data: Cell Phones, Students and Schools.

“Banning can be very problematic,” said Vanessa Wrenn, chief information officer at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. She recalled being an assistant principal when her school banned hats.

“I spent my day working with children because they were wearing a hat, and there were so many better ways to use my time,” Wrenn said.

There’s no doubt cellphones are a problem in schools, according to teachers and many other experts.

Teachers believe they’re wasting precious classroom time on distracted students — disrupting the teachers’ planning and making them feel flustered or disrespected. For some teachers, the potential for dropping test scores could reflect poorly on their teaching record.

For students and their families, busier scheduling and the expectations of people always being reachable make a ban on cellphones in school disruptive toward family communication.

Leaders need to find an approach to phones in schools that works well enough for both teachers and students, State Superintendent Catherine Truitt said.

Deciding what to do about cellphones shouldn’t be an all or nothing decision, she said. The conversation in communities right now is about banning cellphones or not banning them, she said, adding that she thinks that’s not a productive conversation.

“When we ban things we create groups. We create those in favor and those opposed, and then we often attach morality to that,” Truitt said.

Problems and solutions

The issue of cellphones in schools is a collection of problems, rather than being simply one problem with one solution.

On Thursday, leaders recounted a host of problems and possible solutions when it comes to cellphones in schools.

The problems discussed:

  • Cellphones are distracting for academics. Some research based on actions in other countries suggests cellphone restrictions could lead to higher test scores.
    • Cellphones and social media are addictive
      • Social media can cause harm when children are exposed to harmful content or messages
        • Cellphone use at home can disrupt behavior at school, such as by instigating fights or making threats
          • Bullying that happens outside now carries over into cyberbullying during and after school
            • Too many calls or text messages during emergencies can slow communications in and out of a school

              Some solutions proposed:

              • Some restricted phone access at school, such as allowing it during certain times but not others or using pouches or phone lockers when phones are not allowed.
                • Social media controls on phones or WiFi access
                  • Better management of phone use at home by parents
                    • Media literacy for students and parents teaching them how online and social media tools work and how to properly use them. Schools could be a setting for people to learn these life skills.
                      • Parents can be encouraged to buy their children flip phones or smart watches, rather than smartphones with more functionality and social media access. Those devices can still assuage concerns about a lack of access to devices at school. This solution is less practical for families where smartphones may be the only devices at home that get Internet access.
                        • Use tools outside of social media to communicate information to students about social events or extracurricular activities

                          Lucy Ashburn, an Enloe High School freshman, said her teachers use a light system. When the light is red, you can’t use your phone. When the light is yellow, you can use your phone for limited things, like listening to music during work time. When the light is green, you can use your phone without limitations.

                          Cell phones can be distracting in class, Lucy said.

                          “Usually, the teacher will have to say at least once in class to someone, ‘Please put your phone away,’” she said.

                          Lucy uses her phone during the day for practical things. She recalled using it just the other day when her dad needed her opinion on a grocery store run.

                          But there’s also the social temptation, she said, “The constant feeling of, ‘Oh, did someone text me?’ That’s always there, because you always have it in your pocket.”

                          Teaching people — both students and their families — to regulate their own cellphone use and their children’s cellphone use was a common theme that kept emerging Thursday.

                          As schools have invited technology into classrooms — thinking that it will better prepare students for their futures — little has been done to teach students or their families about digital literacy or pitfalls, Wrenn said.

                          That doesn’t add up, when you think about it, say Mitch Prinstein, a psychology and neuroscience professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

                          “We don’t give kids of age the keys to a car without giving them the skills to protect themselves and others on the road,” Prinstein said.

                          Lucy’s mom, former principal and current Wake schools area superintendent Elena Ashburn, said parents need to model appropriate cellphone use at home. Cellphones aren’t allowed at dinner most of the time, she said.

                          “I feel like cellphone bans, especially for high school students, feels a bit extreme,” Lucy said. ‘They should be able to self-regulate that.”

                          Growing cellphone restrictions

                          Eight states have now enacted limitations on cellphones in schools, said Lauren Gendill, education policy analyst at the National Council of State Legislatures. Executives and legislatures in a total of 22 have proposed something since 2023.

                          Some have issued flat-out bans and others have issued policies disallowing cellphones during class but not lunch.

                          No statewide proposal has been made in North Carolina, but some lawmakers have taken an interest. Send. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake, and Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, sponsored a bill last year that would have directed the state to study the use of cellphones in schools. It didn’t pass, but both lawmakers attended Thursday’s forum and continued to express their interest in doing something.

                          “We exposed kids I think too early to technology,” Burgin said. He’s worried technology is stymying growth and imagination in kids. Some experts said imagination and creativity can still happen online, but it’s not a given.

                          Most schools in North Carolina and the country have cellphone policies that restrict the devices’ use and have had them for years. But enforcement of them is a totally separate issue and in many cases, it’s nonexistent.

                          Students fight back. Teachers lose patience and give up.

                          Many teachers don’t want to confiscate cellphones because they’re expensive, and they don’t want to risk damaging or losing them.

                          That’s what they’ve told Chatham County Schools Superintendent Anthony Jackson.

                          So his system bought phone pouches, costing $25 per pouch and issued to each student. They’re new this year for a handful of schools conducting a pilot program. Pouches lock for most students but are only closed with Velcro for students with medical needs, such as a diabetic student who uses their phone to help them record their blood sugar. Students keep the pouches on their persons or set them in a designated spot in the classroom.

                          Jackson can’t say for sure if it’s working but anecdotes so far have been positive.

                          One teacher told him students’ social skills have improved.

                          She said to him, “’For the first time since the pandemic I saw my students’ eyes.’”

                          Principals say the students talk to each other more often during lunch time. There haven’t been as many fights, said Tracy Fowler, Chatham’s senior director of student services.

                          “We feel like it’s definitely changing the climate,” Fowler said.

                          The kids don’t mind as much as you’d expect, they said.

                          Eva Telzer, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill, said she asks her students to unplug from all digital technology for 24 hours as a part of an assignment every year. They always report positive feedback — getting more sleep, exercising, talking with friends in-person.

                          The fear is looking forward, not looking back, she said.

                          “They wish there had been policies in middle school and high school to get them off and that their parents hadn’t given them a phone so early,” Telzer said.