WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah — Bell-to-bell, no phones in school. No "snapping" in the feed. Not even during lunch. That's the policy Utah leaders are now proposing to be enacted statewide for all public school students.
"Students aren't a big fan overall," said Washington County School District teacher Britt Stull. "We teachers see the benefit. It’s just we worry a little bit that it's just one more thing for teachers to do during the workday."
The Washington County School District has been under a bell-to-bell school phone ban since the start of the school year.
"I have kids all the time saying, 'I need my phone because my schedule is on there or I need to look at my grades,' stuff like that," shared Stull. "I've got a printer in my room, and I've just started printing out schedules for kids who have that complaint. It's like, I got you."
‘Bell to Bell’ ban on cell phones proposed for all Utah schools:
Even while Stull has her students’ backs, she says it can be tough to stay on top of everything.
"It seems simple to be like, 'Hey, police the phones,' but when you've got 30 kids in the classroom, four of them are on cell phones, three of them are talking during a test, different things. It is a lot to try to do at one time," she admitted.
The language arts teacher said parents are mostly supportive of the full ban, except for the so-called snowplow parents.
"They're similar to helicopter parents, but they remove all the barriers for their students so the kids don't experience anything difficult," Stull explained. "We've had a couple complain because they feel they need to get in touch with their student at all times."
Another issue is that the Washington County School District's rules differ a bit from the ones the state is proposing, especially when it comes to older students.
"The only difference is that for our 10th, 11th, and 12th graders, our high school students that have different schedules, that have different lives, we do allow to have their cell phones at during lunch and in between class periods. Oftentimes, they have internships. They may have other things going on," said district spokesperson Steve Dunham.
Dunham admits it's a tricky thing to be a school district these days, and that if Washington County needs to change its policy, it will do so.
"We're a government agency. We have to follow the law," he said. "So if they pass the law that says that, you know what? We'll follow the law because that's what we do."
