Debating ideas for the statewide phone ban that is being voted on in the Pennsylvania State Congress in June, Souderton’s Voices for Education members are preparing to present their opinion.
Voices for Education is the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit’s student advocacy group. The group’s objective is to empower students to become educational leaders.
On February 3, following a push from Governor Josh Shapiro to institute a phone ban in schools, the Pennsylvania Senate passed a “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban in K-12 schools.
According to Voices for Education student member Jake Allen student leaders will travel to Harrisburg on June 3 to oppose the passage of the bill, arguing for a more “realistic” drawn-out option that is not as broad as a “bell-to-bell” ban.
The Senate’s education committee brought this bill up, and the ideas stem from a book called “The Anxious Generation,” written by Jonathan Haidt, in which Haidt argues that the rise of smartphones and social media has caused a dramatic decline in youth mental health.
Assistant principal Matthew Haines said this book has provided much of the research that the State has used in creating this proposed bill.
“That book and the author’s research laid a lot of the foundational work for these bills. It was a bestseller, and we as a staff read it two years ago,” Haines said.
The main argument in “The Anxious Generation” and in the proposed bill is that students having access to phones and social media has decreased their ability to function in social situations.
Allen agrees that this has become a problem in schools, but that a blanket “bell-to-bell” ban would remove the tool that a phone has become.
“I think if the ban were put into place, kids would definitely start talking to each other more, which I’d love to see,” Allen said, “but, if we got rid of social media on the phones through a geofence, kids would still have their phones for a tool, and then they’re going to be talking to people because there is no social media.”
Director of curricular bands Adam Tucker believes that a significant problem with a possible phone ban would be that students would lose the ability to contact their parents in an emergency.
“The main point of contention is going to be what if there’s an emergency?” Tucker said. “I’m not talking about a zombie outbreak or anything like that. I’m talking about if a family member has to go to the hospital, the easiest way to get in touch with a kid is just to text them on their phone.”
One of the biggest issues that school administrators have about the bill is how it is too unspecific with what it wants schools to do, and does not offer any funding for possible methods.
“They’re imposing all these regulations on us, but my question is, who’s paying for all of this? Whatever option they choose, it is going to have a monetary value to it,” Haines said. “Also, the language, the verbiage just does not really describe what the state wants us exactly to do.”