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Cell bans: Shouldn't we just talk to kids?

Phones in school part of larger issue

By: Rob Miraldi
Your Turn
Guest columnist

..... If a student walked into a high school class wearing a T-shirt protesting the government's harsh immigration policies, the First Amendment would protect their "speech." But if they wrote a story in the school newspaper condemning the school board for not protecting diversity rules, the newspaper would likely be shut down.
..... If a student advocated the growing and selling of marijuana - illegal for a teenager - the student might be suspended. but if they cursed and mocked a physical education teacher - on their own computer - for not choosing them for the cheer-leading squad, their speech would be protected.
..... So there you have it - a mixed message on First Amendment protections for 15.8 million young people in public high schools who now have the summer off. but in the fall, or soon enough, a new test will arise. As states rush to ban the use of mobile phones in schools, the question will be: Do students more than ever have the need and constitutional right to receive information on their mobile devices?
..... An important question for both educators and the students who report being Online "almost constantly." Teen in 2025 spend eight hours and 39 minutes per day on smartphones and devices. A day! And statistics reveal they spend 90 minutes a day Online DURING school.
..... No wonder an author of a bestselling book calls them "the anxious generation," battered by post-COVID-19 blues alongside jarring and troubling episodes on social media. would a school phone ban help?
..... That might be a hard sell. The two most important Supreme Court decisions - Ticker v. Des Moines School district in 1969 and Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier in 1988 - emphasize that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." However, when speech interrupts the school's main propose - educating - then the First Amendment has to sit down, at least in the school.

What does a pioneering Vietnam protester say?

..... I contacted Mary Beth Tinker, 73, who was the 13-year-old who wore a black armband to school in 1965 to protest the Vietnam War. She and her brother were suspended. But she won in the Supreme Court - and has spent the rest of her life fighting for causes related to freedom of high school students.
..... "As far as cell phones," she told me, "I've become more skeptical. there is more and more evidence on the harmful effects to child and t4een health. in general, though, I do think that students should be involved in the rules that affect them."
..... So far, 26 states have passed laws; eight others are close. To ban or not to ban is the debate du jour. As I searched Google, I was amazed that websites went back and forth on how phones are both awful and wonderful.
..... "As the pendulum swings toward striver regulations, the debate intensifies," observes Forbes magazine.
..... And parents and educators seem at odds. Nealy 75% of educators want phones out of the school. Parents agree, but worry that in an emergency their child will need to be in contact with them - or some authority. a reasonable concern.
..... Despite this reservation, nearly 98% want at least a partial ban because students would have fewer distractions. students, of course, are less convinced; only 36% agree with a ban.
..... My fear is that we are furiously debating the wrong thing and missing the forest for the trees. PEN America, a nonprofit writers advocacy group, found more than 10,000 instances of book banning in 2023-2024. Most of the books were about race and LGBTQ+ topics; the push to remove the was coordinated by conservative groups.
..... A student of Palestinian descent in Michigan declined to stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance to protest U.S. Mideast policy.
..... She was berated by her teacher who told her, "You should go back to your country."
..... The spirit of the First Amendment is under furious attack.
..... And while we fret about the disruption crated by cell phones - from bullying to classroom distraction to cheating - we lose sight of a larger issue: We've become a culture what needs to be constantly connected to the Internet that is numbing us into a sedentary generation hooked on YouTube & Company.

We need to hear from young people about phones, our culture

..... That overwhelming fact of modern life ought to propel schools to involve young people in that discussion. The curriculum needs updating - and a jolt. It's fine and dandy to study Greek and roman Gods, but Zeus and Eros are posting on Instagram, the kids are not interested.
..... Young people get it. A Pew Research Center study indicated that 36% of kids feel better and more relaxed when not Online. One whistle-blower after another has revealed how Instagram and TikTok - the most popular apps - use algorithms to lure teens into dangerous places. We can cut off their access at school, as a beginning point, but the content and addiction are far larger problems.
..... I wish I had a panacea. and I'm a Pollyanna when it comes to fixing the world. but just banning phones is myopic. And it's getting worse. AI has entered the building. Educators don't know how to measure what's real when a student delivers a essay. The phone epidemic will pale in comparison.
..... The First Amendment was put into place in 1791, long before electronic devises were imagined. But the free speech principle remains the same: We protect speech because we need to hear from each other.
..... Let young people in on the discussion. the glass on the sue of mobile devices is surely half full - a wildly productive research tool. It's the half empty part we need to figure out.
..... I'd like a trade: Ban phone during the school day but invest more heavily in an intensive media literacy effort that engages y9oung people in discussion about their own use of the phone.
..... How much time do they spend? What are the effects of social media? Should access to sexually explicit material be regulated? How do we encourage original material from students instead of the artificial Intelligence?
.... How about disinformation and misinformation, what we used to call propaganda? How to confirm accurate information, more important than ever in the age of Trump?
..... The providers who keep us Online won't like this discussion. they know what's at stake. Ban school phones, fewer kids are Online. And that's why this advertisement startled me on Spectrum TV, which serves more than 57 million homes in 41 states.
..... A mother is getting her older son ready for school.
..... "He's gonna need a phone to bring," she says. An authoritative voice intones: "backed by the Spectrum commitment to keep you connected."
..... Do we really need to be connected all the time? Doesn't this "commitment" seriously reduce our connection to friends, family, books, nature, ideas and productive work?
..... Our kids are looking at devices and screens at every moment of their day. Television is pass. Banning phones in the school scratches the surface about the larger question of a technological nightmare that our culture faces.
..... Maybe the kids can help figure out the future of the digital landscape. Empower them to join.

..... Rob Miraldi's First amendment writing has won numerous awards. he taught journalism at the State University of New York for many years. Email:rob.miraldi@gmail.com

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