Virginia’s new law banning cellphones in the classroom just took effect, with more school systems around the D.C. region getting ready to implement similar bans after testing different ways to do it.
Those in favor of classroom cellphone bans say fewer distractions during class should improve academic performance. Plus they say technology has such a negative impact on kids’ mental health, and bans should offer a respite.
One education professor said it’s a good first step, but parents and school systems will need to be ready to offer more help to kids when it comes to mental health concerns.
“Will it fix the, quote, unquote, ‘mental health crisis’ among youth? I don’t think it will fix that,” said Nancy Deutsch, education professor at the University of Virginia and co-director of the Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment initiative at the school, which studies the impact — both good and bad — technology is having on kids.
“There are a lot of things that feed into why youth are struggling with their mental health right now,” she said. “And I think for some youth, they actually are using technology to support their mental health, right? Whether it is finding community online or using tools, that there’s a lot of good and bad tools out there.”
She said parents and school systems need to be cautious with their expectations on the new law, and argued they should also be asking, “What else do we still need to be doing to support youth mental health?”
Which isn’t to say she’s arguing against the ban. But she doesn’t want parents or educators to stop looking at the other aspects of a teen’s world that impacts their mental health either.
“Don’t assume that because we’ve taken phones out of school, that that means we don’t need to invest in mental health resources in schools,” Deutsch said. “Schools are where kids are during the day, and so the more that we can ensure that they have support for their mental health in schools, the better that they’ll be able to do.”
And she said how school systems actually implement this new ban will also determine how impactful it is.
“We know that where the rubber hits the road with any kind of policy is how it is actually enacted on the ground,” Deutsch said. “You can often expect pretty widespread differences in how things are implemented.”
Deutsch’s own experiences — her kids attend public schools in Charlottesville — have taught her as much.
“It sounds like there’s been a lot of variation in how much within individual schools or within individual classrooms, that the cellphone ban has been enforced,” she said. “So when there’s variation between schools and, between schools or between classrooms, that’s going to create a lot of differences in experiences for kids, and I think it’s important to know why that variation happens and what the impact is.”
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