New Jersey Governor Pushes Phone Ban in Schools 63
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called for a statewide ban on cellphones in K-12 classrooms during his State of the State address on Tuesday, citing concerns over student distraction and mental health. The Democratic governor, in his final year in office, also proposed full salary payments for state workers using parental leave and expanded full-day pre-K programs across the state.
The cellphone initiative follows similar restrictions in seven other states, including California and Florida. A Pew Research poll showed 68% of U.S. adults support classroom phone bans, with 72% of teachers calling the devices a major distraction. "Mobile devices are fueling a rise in cyberbullying and making it incredibly difficult for our kids to learn," Murphy told state legislators.
The cellphone initiative follows similar restrictions in seven other states, including California and Florida. A Pew Research poll showed 68% of U.S. adults support classroom phone bans, with 72% of teachers calling the devices a major distraction. "Mobile devices are fueling a rise in cyberbullying and making it incredibly difficult for our kids to learn," Murphy told state legislators.
Why hasn't it been done? (Score:5, Insightful)
Makes one wonder why it hasn't been done already.
And why we're constantly in an "autopsy" mode, waiting for something major to happen before passing laws, verses going by scientific evidence.
Capitalism, perhaps?
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps it hasn't been done yet because teachers and politicians are just as addicted to their phones, as the students.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm addicted to my phone too, but I would gladly give it up for the world to be rid of them.
Re: (Score:2)
What's stopping you? It's verry possible to live without them. There are many older people who do just that.
Re: (Score:2)
And why we're constantly in an "autopsy" mode, waiting for something major to happen before passing laws, verses going by scientific evidence.
This is as it should be. Science is terrible at predicting the future.
Take a simple example of deciding where to build new roads in a growing city. One could use the scientific method to predict where the new, bigger roads should go, to always keep congestion at bay. The problem is, those scientific predictions would always be wrong. We would end up with large roads where we don't need them, and congestion in other places.
Or consider AI. What precise laws should we be making right now regarding AI? We are u
Re: (Score:1)
Makes one wonder why it hasn't been done already.
Karens.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Why hasn't it been done? (Score:5, Insightful)
Makes one wonder why it hasn't been done already.
Mothers who believe they need to have access to their children at all times, mothers who believe that their children are under constant threat of being shot, and mothers who believe their children are only using their phones to stay in contact with their parents and not using it for TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, etc..
Ignorant faculty and school administration as well. I was visiting a friend of mine at her school while she was teaching a computer class and noticed piles of kids were on their phones. I asked her why she permits the kids to use her phone and I was told it was the school ethos to encourage students to use whatever devices they have at their disposal to enhance their learning experience. I decided to walk up and down the rows and it was a mix of TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and one kid watching Rick & Morty. There was zero utilization of their personal device for 'educational enhancements'.
Re: (Score:2)
The teacher doesn't have to fuck with them if they have their noses buried in a phone, that's why.
Re:Why hasn't it been done? (Score:4, Funny)
Ignorant faculty and school administration as well. I was visiting a friend of mine at her school while she was teaching a computer class and noticed piles of kids were on their phones.
I just don't think our schools should be keeping children in piles.
Re: (Score:2)
I just don't think our schools should be keeping children in piles.
How do your schools stack them?
Re: (Score:2)
You don't stack children! That's horrible!
You chain them to their desks with iron manacles and heavy chains. Gags are good too.
Re:Why hasn't it been done? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, there are not 1000's of legit reasons kids need a phone.
Re: Why hasn't it been done? (Score:3)
Oh, your kid is such a special snowflake, huh? No, your kid doesn't need a phone in school. You may need to seek professional help to deal with your separation anxiety, though.
I agree it doesn't need to be a law, but if any teacher wants to confiscate phones, even if put away, they should be allowed to. There's literally no reason to have them in school.
Re: (Score:2)
You're not wrong. However, in several school districts I know of (I leave near LAUSD) it's pretty tough to expell kids, only a little harder to suspend them, and it's getting tougher to discipline them. The roughest kids know this, and push the limits _all_ _the_ _time_.
Re: (Score:2)
I came to say, "Why hasn't this been done everywhere about 10 years ago?".
Re: (Score:2)
Because I guarantee there was a bunch of school board meetings where karen moms wailed and cried that they wouldn't be able to instantly get in touch with their kid, for all the zero times they've needed to. Never mind that every single person above a certain low age never had that when we were growing up, and yet here we still are.
Re: (Score:2)
Makes one wonder why it hasn't been done already. And why we're constantly in an "autopsy" mode, waiting for something major to happen before passing laws, verses going by scientific evidence.
Capitalism, perhaps?
Are you kidding? Parents literally lose their fucking shit if they can't get ahold of their children the whole time they're at school. Some of the folks I know will blow their top of a teacher makes the kids leave the phones at their desk when they go to another class for some reason. We've brainwashed two entire generations into believing the phone being on them is the *ONLY* reason they survive the day outside the house. If they don't have it, they lose their minds. There was a time this type of addiction
Re: (Score:2)
Capitalism __PERHAPS__?? as my English teach would shout so that the entire school could hear him, breaking the yardstick into splinters across someone's desk.
Re: (Score:2)
How do you propose it be enforced? do you think this is a simple decision that will easily propagate down through every school in the state?
School shootings. (Score:2)
Solve that first. When i don't worry that my kid is going to get shot at school, i'll stop sending them to school with a tool to call the police.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. Guns are already illegal at schools. Do they think they can really prevent students from carrying phones?
Re: (Score:2)
You could just as easily say the same thing about murder. Do you really think laws against murder will stop ALL murder? This point is ridiculous.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course not, and yes, the point is ridiculous, intentionally. Cell phones are so much less harmful than guns. It's like passing a low to require people to tie their shoelaces to prevent tripping injuries. Such laws do nothing (or little) that is useful, and turn everyone into criminals.
Re: (Score:2)
Do they think they can really prevent students from carrying phones?
The problem isn't kids carrying phones. The problem is when phones become a distraction and a hindrance to education.
A few kids may have surreptitious phones hidden in their backpacks, but if they take them out and use them on school grounds, the phones will be confiscated.
Many schools already have phone bans.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, my kids' school also had a phone ban. 90% of students had phones on them anyway.
Distractions are always a thing, this is not new. Back in my day, we passed notes around the classroom, and even tossed them through the air when the teacher's back was turned. Some teachers resorted to reading out loud any notes they caught being passed, so we started writing notes specifically to be read out loud. It became a game.
Cell phones are just the new note-passing.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not like without children's cell phones they're stuck with carrier pigeons or something. Between teacher's cell phones and land lines there are most certainly dozens of available phones available to use in the case of a shooting at your kid's school. They've got it covered without your kid's phone.
Re: (Score:1)
Angeli Rose Gomez, Google it.
Re: (Score:1)
Nope, you can cite your own sources with a proper link. I'm not doing the work to support the case YOU want to make.
Re: (Score:1)
I don't actually care if you know. :) Your ignorance is your problem.
Re: (Score:1)
*shrug* Given your inability to support your own point I doubt I'm missing anything interesting.
Re: (Score:2)
Where are these mythical land lines of which you speak? Using the school phone or teacher's phone is fine when you are actually in school, but what about after? When I was running around town as an adolescent or teen, I just dropped a dime in a pay phone to call my parents. I haven't even seen a pay phone in a decade. I'm fine with mandating phones stay in lockers, switched off during school hours, but kids should be able to bring them to school so they have them after school.
Re: (Score:2)
It's mentioned in the summary that it's a proposed classroom ban, not a school ban.
They will likely put them in labeled pouches when they show up at school and get them back at end of day. They're even able to access the phones with a teachers help if they need contact info during the day or something similar. That's what I've seen from any individual schools who's implemented such a thing.
The cited article in the summary mentions individual schools in New Jersey who have already implemented such bans and t
Re: (Score:2)
Ha, I just noticed the Slashdot title said "School Ban". The linked to source with quotes from the governor says "classroom ban" though.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't think what kids are consuming on those phones have anything to do with shootings?
Re: (Score:2)
That depends on if their parents are competent or not.
Re: (Score:3)
i'll stop sending them to school with a tool to call the police.
You could save some money by getting your kid a flip phone. 911 works just as well on a flip phone as a smart phone.
Just sayin'...
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed for the most part. Up to 13, the only phone i'd give my kid anyway would be a dumb phone. Under 10 it'd be one of those kid specific ones that only has certain numbers programmed in, and no keypad to make random calls.. Mine, my spouuses, their siblings. After 13... It's gonna depend on the kid, how responsible they are and a whole bunch of different factors that the government has absolutely no capability to measure or legislate.
Re: School shootings. (Score:2)
Stop watching the news. Your kid is like 1000x more likely to be killed on the way to school by a vehicle. The fact that your fragile psyche can't handle 24/7 news is not a basis for policy.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, has the school shooting rate increased or decreased since columbine?
Re: (Score:2)
Between 1970 and 2021 we went from .49 per million children experiencing a school shooting to 2.21 per million children https://www.facs.org/media-cen... [facs.org]. That's a .000221% chance your child will be a school shooting victim. Your child is safe at school.
SC did it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Pretty sure those homeschooling parents will take that phone away real quick if their kids keep looking at it while they are being taught.
Good luck (Score:3)
My kids' school had a strict no-phones policy. They were expected to be kept in lockers, and never brought to class. Any phones found were immediately confiscated.
Guess how many students carried phones with them anyway... Yeah, just about all of them. Whenever we texted our kids during the school day, we could pretty much rely on getting an immediate response.
State laws aren't going to be any easier to enforce.
Re: (Score:3)
Never mind kids will have to use their phones far less so as to keep them on the downlow and not have them confiscated. Even with your scenario this accomplishes a lot towards this law's intended goal.
Re: (Score:2)
You have a point, good parenting can't be legislated. Thanks for the personal example.
Re: (Score:2)
Our kids' school also had a strict hair policy, requiring boys to keep it short. We didn't care about the specifics of the rule. If your boys got in trouble over their hair, we got them a haircut, and that was the end of it. If they didn't get in trouble, we didn't care. Did that make us bad parents too? I don't think so.
There is room for differing opinions on cell phone use in school, without needing to call parents who disagree with you, "bad parents."
Re: (Score:2)
During the workday, a working parent has break, lunch break, and break during which to notify the teen of an urgent condition.
Re: (Score:2)
The office would be happy to let your child know about something urgent that cant possibly wait until after school. Most schools have phones in all the classroom, the office secretary just has to look up your child in the system to see which room they're in and then call it.
Re: (Score:2)
Much like how I dont text my wife when I know she's driving, I don't text the kids when they are at school.
Re: (Score:2)
Oof, I text my wife when she's driving sometimes too.
In both cases, not obsessively. Yes, there is a point beyond which it becomes a problem. Zero tolerance isn't the answer.
No more GOVERNMENT CELLPHONE USERS (Score:1)
I'm pretty sure the government of the rust state of New Jersey had HIS cellphone on while giving this important one-sided speech. Because HE can be distracted by cellphones. Then he drove home with his cellphone on and probably texted. Because it's OK FOR HIM. But students shouldn't have cellphones.
New Jersey is just one example of where watching too many Sporanos episodes leads them to think they "rule something" or "mean something." Rustpit.
Re: (Score:2)
You do know Florida has already done this, don't you? It's in the blurb. I'm guessing you have the same opinion of Death Sentence in that shit hole state, right?
Re: No more GOVERNMENT CELLPHONE USERS (Score:2)
Lots of high level elected officials have someone on hand whose job it is to make and receive phone calls. It's considered a security risk to carry a phone and answer it yourself. You want all communication to be vetted/identified, and there may even be laws about data preservation. So, your example kind of sucks.
Phone companies push for governor ban in schools (Score:2)
Why not just abolish mandatory education? (Score:3)
Cellphones aren't the problem, disengaged students are. They don't see the value (and I don't mean monetary) in learning. And why should they, when the adults in their life don't seem very convinced either? I'm sure every single one of us has had their fair share of half-assed teachers; met parents that just saw school as a hoop you had to jump through; watched entertainers who make bank without having any need for an education. As a society, we've totally lost a sense of why education matters. IE: "If it's not going to land you a sweet, high paying job, why bother?"
So, to answer my own subject-line-question: "Free childcare."
What next? (Score:2)
Are they going to ban watches too?
How about hearing aids?
Or other BlueTooth accessories