CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Cell phones in the classroom are a hot topic that has some parents and school officials divided. Meanwhile, schools around the Charlotte area continue to ban or put strict restrictions on cell phones in school.
Some of the districts enacting no-phone policies this year are Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Rock Hill Schools, and Burke County Schools. All have varying degrees of how strict the policies' consequences are, but all of them have the same goal: to reduce distractions in school.
In the first week of school at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, students were talking to each other, making friends, and sharing jokes—all without cell phones in use.
"What we want is when you're here, you're here to learn after school, you can do the social stuff -- we want you to engage," Tommy Schmolze, Rock Hill Schools Superintendent, said.
The new policy at Rock Hill Schools bans personal cell phones from being out and aren't allowed to be used at all, even between classes.
"The majority of parents are supporting us because they see even at home the distraction that causes. And so with their support, I think it's going to be okay. Students, it's going to take a while to get used to," Schmolze said.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2020, cell phone bans picked up. They were in place in at least 76% of U.S. schools.
CMS’s cell phone ban leaves it up to each principal’s discretion; they can be used between classes or lunch but during the instructional day, students will not be allowed to use their phones during class time.
The topic of having access to a cell phone during an emergency is a real concern for some parents. Access to cell phones can help students in some situations. Last year, a student using the "See Something, Say Something" mobile app in Union County helped law enforcement.
"It's an anonymous reporting app that students can use within our schools," Lt. James M. Maye, Union County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer said. "And so from that tip, we heard that there was potentially a weapon on a local school campus, we locked school camps down once again out of just to you know, make sure all the kids were saved, make sure none of the kids went outside. And we did ultimately recover a weapon."
The app is also available via iPad and can be accessed from a desktop or laptop computer.
Districts who have banned cell phones say it won’t impact student safety.
“We have safety security officers here, we have our SOPs (standard operating procedures) that handle any disruption to the campus," Schmolze said. "I know that is an argument, have it in the palm of your hand, and that can push a button. But what we have heard too is in an extreme case, cell phones actually clog the system up and actually prevent law enforcement from doing their jobs adequately. So this is one step towards that to make it even safer.”
Consistent enforcement of the policies will be key to making it work. How districts discipline students for using cell phones varies from having their phones locked away and needing a parent to retrieve it on campus to an in-school suspension.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.