SALT LAKE CITY — Governor Spencer Cox and other state leaders are proposing an update to a bill recently passed by the Utah State Legislature that goes further than simply restricting cell phone use by students during some parts of the school day.
The hope is to expand the restrictions to a bell-to-bell ban on cell phones, meaning students would no longer be able to use their phones at any point while at school. Senate Bill 178 currently restricts cell phone to passing periods and lunch.
The Granite School District already has a cell phone policy in place, including a bell-to-bell ban at Granger High School.
“[Granite High School] require their students to put their cell phones inside of a locking pouch at the start of every day,” explained Luke Allen, Associate Director of Communications for the district. “And then at the end of the day, as they exit, they can use a magnetic device to unlock those pouches.”
Allen said the policy has been very successful in keeping the students focused on learning and even decreasing fights between students on campus by 50%.
“The first year of that policy at Granger High School, if you compare the student failure rate to the 4 years leading up to that, they had their lowest rates of those 5 years,” he said. “So they had their lowest failure rates in 5 years, the first year they had that policy.”
In the case of an emergency, Granger High School students are able to get their phones from the teachers. Each district can implement this policy in the way that works for its needs.
Allen said the Granite School District would be in support of the proposed legislation that would expand the restrictions statewide.
“Granite School District would be in support of any policy or legislation that helps students spend less time on their cell phones and more time engaged in their academics during the school day,” Allen said. “So any minute that a student has spent engaging with social media or distracted by their cell phone during the school day, that's a minute that they're not spending engaging with their learning or their academics.”
