State Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, said it’s time to crack down on students using cellphones in public schools.
A retired high school teacher of 40 years, Schuler said that not only has student performance been negatively affected by students having cellphones in class, but so has their ability to communicate and socialize with each other.
Toward the end of her career, Schuler said she was stunned to see how less often students were talking to each other and instead staring at the screens on their phones.
“Those causal conversations with children to each other, we’re losing that,” Schuler said. “When you just talk through your phone everyday, it makes casual conversations harder.”
Schuler’s Senate File 21 would require all Wyoming school districts to ban cellphones during class time.
After seeing the problem firsthand before she retired in 2016, talking to many other teachers and administrators, and having many of her constituents reach out to her about the issue, Schuler determined student cellphone use has reached near-epidemic proportions.
So far, cellphone use in schools has been a policy decision for individual school districts to make in Wyoming.
Although she usually supports local control, Schuler said it’s time to get ahead of the problem and enact a policy statewide. Schuler said she’s seen a number of studies showing that cellphone bans lead to improved testing scores, which she believes could happen in Wyoming as a result of the ban.
“It will allow them (students) to focus on what they should be focusing on,” Schuler said.
According to health policy resource KFF, eight states have passed statewide policies that ban or restrict cellphone use in schools.
Schuler also has concerns about cyberbullying and body shaming issues related to cellphones, problems that have been linked to teen depression and suicide.
She’s hopeful that with a ban in place, students will be less inclined to pull their cellphones out even when they’re allowed to.
“Maybe if they get face-to-face contact a little more, they’ll keep their phones in their pockets longer and talk to each other more,” Schuler said.
Wyoming’s Watching
In September, Gov. Mark Gordon and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder wrote a joint letter to every school district in Wyoming requesting that they limit classroom cellphone use.
They acknowledge that some school districts in the state have already implemented cellphone policies.
The biggest pushback to some of these policies comes from parents concerned that children won’t have to access their phones during an emergency event. Some also say that whether a child has access to a cellphone at school, or anywhere else, is a decision for parents.
Others have also expressed concern about not being able to get a hold of their children in general.
Schuler said she doesn’t understand why that couldn’t be resolved by having a school’s front office contact a student if need be.
She also was stunned when a parent told her a student wouldn’t go to a particular school if they weren’t allowed to use their phone during school hours.
“Some of this is on the parents too,” she said. “There’s a generation there where they’ve grown up with them and they can’t be without them.”
Schuler said Evanston High School has already enacted a policy restricting cellphone use.
“They said it’s been amazing,” she said. “What they’ve found it helps so much with the focus with kids.”
At Sheridan High School, students can have their phones turned off in their backpacks, but not turned on outside their backpacks while at school.
In 2022, the Fremont County School District 25 Board of Trustees approved a rule change at Riverton Middle School, requiring students keep their cellphones in their lockers, except during the lunch break.
Wyoming Catholic College in Lander doesn’t allow students to have cellphones for the bulk of their four years at the school.
What It Does
Under the legislation, school boards in Wyoming would be required to adopt policies prohibiting students from using cellphones and smart watches during instructional time.
Beyond instructional periods, it would be up to the local school districts to decide how they want to manage cellphone use. It also allows districts to decide what kind of punishments should be issued for violations.
“They can decide if they want to be heavy or hard or just give a write-up,” Schuler said.
School boards would be required to enact policies reflecting the act by July, 1, 2025.
The bill would not prohibit students from using cellphones or smart watches in the case of an emergency or in response to a perceived threat of danger; when an employee of the school district authorizes a student to use them; when using the devices is part of their individualized education plan, or when a health care provider determines that their use is necessary to manage a student's health care.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
