A school district in Florida banned students from using their phones during school hours, leading to less violence and more engagement.
In the fall, Broward County Public Schools implemented a near-total ban on student cellphones. The ban extends to lunchrooms, with the exception of emergencies NBC Miami.
The tactic has paid off, despite initial safety concerns.
According to school board member Dr. Allen Zeman, fights among students have fallen by 17 percent since the fall. He attributes the downward trend to young people who do not have a telephone at hand to settle arguments.
“The lack of cell phones leads to fewer fights, to fights with fewer people that last fewer minutes and it also reduces cyberbullying, which is something that causes fights,” he told NBC Miami.
He also said banning the devices prevented students from recording fights, which he said prevented bystanders from helping their peers and breaking up the fights.
But taking away phones has previously led to less bullying and fighting on campus; it made students more involved in their academics.
“I’ve noticed a lot more creativity in students,” Dan Katz, a teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School, told the outlet.
“I think their attention spans are a little bit longer, they have excellent conversations in their groups, those conversations last longer, our classroom discussions are definitely a lot longer and they’re a lot deeper because no one is really focused on checking their phone.” ‘
In the fall, Broward County Public Schools implemented a near-total ban on student cellphones. The ban extends to lunchrooms, with the exception of emergencies (photo: stock image)
According to school board member Dr. Allen Zeman (photo), fights among students have decreased by 17 percent. He attributes the decline to young people who do not have a telephone to settle disputes.
He has also noticed less drama in the classroom and better overall student performance.
Zeman said the “gain for students is greater than last year” compared to last year and teachers are enjoying the improvement.
“I had a teacher write to us and say for the first time in 10 years, for every student in her class, she had two eyeballs watching her while she was lecturing,” Zeman told NBC Miami.
The policy goes beyond just mobile phones. It also broadly bans tablets, laptops, headphones, earbuds and smartwatches from ‘disconnecting to reconnect’, a press release read.
Students are expected to leave their devices on airplane mode or turned off during school hours.
Students or parents who want to get in touch with each other throughout the day can do this at the school secretariat.
When the policy was first introduced, some parents worried they wouldn’t be able to reach their children during an emergency, such as a school shooting.
The Parkland shooting happened in 2018 at a school in Broward County.
Taking away phones has previously led to less bullying and fighting on campus, but also made students more engaged in their academics. “I’ve noticed a lot more creativity in the students,” said Dan Katz, teacher at Fort Lauderdale High School (pictured).
“I think their attention spans are a little bit longer, they have excellent conversations in their groups, those conversations last longer, our classroom discussions are definitely a lot longer and they’re a lot deeper because no one is really focused on checking their phone.” he said about his students (photo: Ford Lauderdale High School)
‘[Students] need to be able to communicate with the outside world, with their parents or guardians, to let them know there is a problem,” said parent Carline Dumoulin NBC News in November.
“We know what happened before.”
Cell phones were a big part of the Parkland shooting, allowing students to text their loved ones and take videos that would later be used during the shooter’s trial.
However, the school board said students’ phones would be placed nearby – such as a classroom that has a holder near the classroom door – to be used during emergencies.
One of the board members, Lori Alhadeff, even lost her daughter Alyssa in the Parkland shooting and had been texting the student throughout the event.
“I know it’s scary, but we must and will communicate with parents as quickly as possible to let them know their children are safe,” she said in November to reassure parents.