Cell Phone Bans in Schools: Protecting Focus or Limiting Freedom?

Smartphones are not going away. Nonetheless, at a joint presentation from Scarsdale High School (SHS) and Scarsdale Middle School (SMS) on November 20, 2024, titled “Phone Smart: How Can We Support Our Youth in the Smartphone Era?” – suggested that Scarsdale students can benefit from a “bell to bell” phone ban.

The evening panel discussion, with an introduction by Scarsdale Schools Superintendent Drew Patrick, highlighted the impact smartphones and social media have in our classrooms. Patrick noted that “living” with technology and smartphone use would need to be a partnership between teachers, students, and parents. He presented a short video taken at a conference this summer addressing this issue with New York Governor Kathy Hochul, various New York State teacher organization representatives, and students from across the state who offered views on the harms and benefits of smartphones.

Patrick referred to the US Surgeon General’s claim that 95% of 13-17 year olds report using social media, and the understanding that kids are constantly dinged and buzzed throughout the day, making them more eager to take a peek at the small screens.
What are other districts doing?

New York is poised to join states and school districts across the U.S. that are trying to ban cell phone use in the classroom, but this action has been postponed until at least January 2025. As head of the nation’s largest public school district, New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks favors a ban. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest, has already initiated restrictions on phones in schools. California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed legislation giving the state’s school districts until July 1, 2026 to start restricting cell phone use during school hours. While deliberations grind on in New York, Governor Hochul is encouraging individual school districts to implement their own cell phone policies.

What’s the policy in Scarsdale?

Currently there is an “Off and Away For The Day” school policy in Scarsdale. For elementary school, children's phones and smart watches ideally should not be brought to school at all. Even in exceptional cases, they should be turned off and put away in backpacks. At Scarsdale Middle School, smart watches do not need to be put away, but phones are left off and away in lockers. At the high school, students entering class place their devices in the phone caddy at the door to be picked up on their way out at the end of the period.

What’s the controversy?

The debate on cell phones in schools boils down to tension between educational, social-emotional, and safety concerns. Proponents of restricting phone use argue that the devices can be a major distraction in class, hindering focus and academic performance. Social media, texting, and gaming draw students’ attention away from lessons and reduce social interaction in person, potentially affecting their social skills and cognitive development.

As reported in Politico, a 2024 poll by the National Parents Union revealed that parents nationwide remain deeply divided on the issue. Many fear that in an era of school shootings, banning phones removes their children’s first line of defense for communication and support in a catastrophe – not to mention the convenience that phones provide for contact between students and their busy working parents during the school day. Some also argue that smartphones should be part of the curriculum - learning tools that can be integrated in classrooms for access to unlimited information.

At the local, state, and national level, politicians and experts are wading through the controversy on phones in schools. While the Senate Health, Education and Labor committee is backing an Education Department study of various school districts’ cell phone policies, The Anxious Generation by New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has raised the collective consciousness about the pervasive societal and psychological implications of phone use on children and youth at a time when social media companies have been under fire for their impacts on young minds.

What do Scarsdale students and parents think?

Some students defend phones as essential learning tools: Blake Feinberg, a SHS senior, says he uses his phone for research “way more than I use my computer, depending on the topic. To me, the phone is easier to navigate and organize, and that is why I write my homework for the day, my to-do lists etc. on my phone.”

Other students, including senior Lorenzo Galeano, note that strict phone policies infringe on students’ rights. “To be frank,” he says, “I don’t think it is fair for a teacher, principal, or whoever to take my phone away as it is my private property. It reminds me of my parents punishing me by taking my car away or grounding me at home. I understand the problems with having our phones stowed away in our pockets, but we should be able to keep them in our backpacks and not the phone caddies.”

James Roth, a Scarsdale resident with three children, offers another perspective: “Smartphones offer zero value in the classroom and actively harm a student’s ability to focus, retain knowledge, and engage with their studies,” he told me in an interview. “The current policy, which allows students to keep their phones with them under limited restrictions, invites constant distractions and undermines the purpose of education. We owe our children more—they, like adults, cannot resist the pull of these devices, which are designed to demand attention.”

Roth advocates a school-wide policy that separates students from phones throughout the day, with no exceptions. “Frankly, we need to do more than this across the entire school system, not just at the high school, but this is an important and necessary first step. Only by creating a distraction-free environment for all students can we ensure equity, focus, richer social relationship building and a commitment to learning as the foundation of their school experience.”

Some students agree with Roth about the benefits of phone detox. Sophie Kushnick, a SHS senior, admits that during her first two years of high school, she was “very distracted in class because my phone, like always of course, vibrates to every notification. Remember though, this was before our school’s off and away policy. Then in my junior year, when the caddies were introduced, I felt a whole new level of focus and undivided attention in class, and in turn, my grades went up.”

Scarsdale High School English teacher Jennifer Rosensweig helps to lead the Scarsdale district on the current school policies on smartphone use. At the November meeting, she invited a panel of SMS and SHS students and faculty to discuss their opinions on smartphones and social media and their effects in the school setting. Rosensweig insisted that, based on her experiences and observations as a teacher at SHS and the many studies she has researched over the years, technology has a negative impact on students.

She explained that, in 2015, she started noticing a drop off in reading ability, which led her to investigate data on screen time’s effect on the adolescent mind. Since then, she has undertaken “a long journey of research.” She states that “the research is so strong, we can’t look away.” She referred to her personal experience with more than 1,500 students, in whom she has seen a difference in concentration, sleep habits, and even an increase in anxiety. Students are now starting to ask for help with this issue, she said.

As a member of the SHS Wellness Committee, which implemented the start of the phone caddy systems last year, she has received reports from teachers that the program has given them back their classrooms. Rosensweig said phone caddies “make a difference but not enough.” She added that it is not realistic to eliminate smartphones altogether, but that each student needs seven hours a day without pings and buzzes demanding their attention.

As Drew Patrick questioned student and teacher panelists on their personal smartphone use, it became clear that few support smartphone access during the school day. One student commented that a “phone cleanse makes my day better. I can think better and just do more.” Another concurred that “without the phone, it felt mentally refreshing. I can enjoy my classes, clear my mind during the day and have great conversations at lunch with my friends.” One student admitted that she “goes straight on it after class in the hallway and is on it the whole walk to my next class. I don’t even look up.”

Rosensweig inserted that, in her research, she found that students “need down time between classes to absorb the information just taught, and if they look at a screen, that information is immediately lost”.

At one point a student exclaimed that smartphone use “is an addiction. I get a craving to be on it.” Having phones in the phone caddies this past year and a half, teachers have seen some real progress. In fact, one teacher commented that there has been “an enormous reduction in bathroom trips and they are far quicker.” Rosensweig also cautions us to be wary of “hyperbolic language for the threat of an emergency when students feel obliged to answer texts from parents.” She added that ipads and laptops also have social media messaging.

A math teacher commented that in her class, she doesn’t really need technology except to submit scanned homework (which takes at most a minute). However, she does notice that when she returns tests at the end of class, there is a mad student dash to retrieve their phones. She informs her students they don’t need to use their phones to calculate their grade percentages! There was definitely a chuckle or two from the audience here, but her story relates to Rosensweig’s comment that this is “not a children’s problem to solve.”

Recognizing this, the district's Technology Department has been working very hard to figure out a balance between the technology smartphones use in the school and how teachers should use it in the classroom.|

As a final question, an attendee asked the panelists: “If you could change something, why and what would you do?” Overwhelmingly the panel asked for a “more unified effort to keep phones off and away.” Rosensweig’s closing words expressed her gratitude to be at this event. Though she would like to see more progress, she believes we have come a long way already. She is glad that the community is talking more honestly about phones in school, and reiterated that kids deserve a more communicative and cooperative learning experience.

Patrick closed the evening discussion with information on the Bell to Bell without phones program implemented in the Bethlehem Central School District. There, phones brought to school are placed in pouches that are sealed up as students enter school. The pouches demagnetize the phones. As the students leave for the day, they unlock the pouches at exit stations to retrieve phone service. The pouches sparked improvements in student connectedness. Patrick sees the smartphone policy as a partnership between the schools and parents. “We can’t do this alone,” he stated. “There is not a big solution” at the moment but he is hopeful for “a discussion for future dialog.”

He directed parents who would like help to use The Scarsdale Family Forum, designed and supported by the District’s Technology Department to help parents, teachers and administrators start discussions on challenging issues.

Lachlan Isaacs is a senior at Scarsdale High School. He has witnessed first-hand the effects of cell phone usage in school. He rowed for 5 years before getting injured and channeled the time spent on the water to the page. He also reports on sports for the SHS Maroon magazine and is passionate about sports and traveling.