Student life in Missouri high schools will drastically change from now on due to the change in law regarding cell phones in schools.
In recent years in Missouri, school life has changed drastically, mostly due to COVID-19. School districts have, in a sense loosened up until now.
It took the state around 4-5 years to put Senate Bill 68 into action, but is this the best solution for phones? I don’t think so. Unlike Parkway’s proposed cell phone policy, which would have allowed students to use their phones between classes and at lunch, the new Missouri cell phone ban would ban cell phones throughout the day. The bill has not been signed into law by Governor Mike Kehoe.
A phone can be good for students who have a problem reaching for their phone out of habit, but I feel like the phone ban will create a lot of problems with kids trying to go against the phone ban rather than help. Kids are pretty attached to phones and hate not even having them with them, so a lot of students will probably be reluctant to put their phone in a box, let alone for an entire school day.
I believe that kids will start to sneak their phones into class to get around having their phones taken. People will start to sneak their airpods into class to prevent them from also being taken from the teachers. What I think the best solution for students and teachers is to allow teachers to confiscate phones during the teaching period of time, But during the homework period of class kids should be allowed to have their phones, or at least Airpods for music. This will be the best way that we can find a balance between teachers being able to teach their students without any distractions from phones, and other personal devices, and students being able to have their phones and to listen to music during their own time.
The phone ban will be put into effect next school year but what will the future of phones look like now? Will kids start bringing mp3 players, or walkmens to school because they can’t listen to music on their phones? Will old-fashioned corded headphones make a comeback over Airpods.
Right now we can only think about the future of students with the phone ban and how it will look, but for now it looks like next year a big part of a student’s school life will be controlled by the the state.
