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Superintendent initially expected the phone ban to result in a 'battle,' but found that wasn't the case
BY THE MIDWESTERNER STAFFAUGUST 1, 2024
At East Jackson High School in Jackson, MI, "engagement is up, and drama is down – exponentially" after school officials last year banned cell phones in class, according to Principal Joel Cook.
"When you take away the compulsion to address Snapchat and TikTok, kids find themselves having to concentrate and participate in some of these debates in the classroom," he told MLive. "Students, staff and parents have appreciated it."
The district's PowerSchool data center shows that since school officials required students to stash their phones in their lockers during class beginning last school year, behavioral referrals have declined by 40%.
"I don't think people fully understand the amount of behavioral issues that began with a Snapchat," Cook said. "If you take that out of the classroom, a lot of drama goes away."
Cook told WSYM he initially expected the phone ban to result in a "battle," but found that wasn't the case.
"Honestly, kids were relieved," he said. "Most parents were relieved."
"Telling these kids – especially coming off of summer break where I bet their screen-time on average is about 8-12 hours a day – that they can't even have their phone on their person? I was ready for a battle," Cook told MLive. "I actually got a lot of feedback from students and parents sending me emails saying 'I think it's a great idea.'"
Superintendent Jeff Punches said threats of bullying was one of the main factors in the decision.
"There would be drama from Snapchat, Facebook, 'This person said this about me. I'm going to fight them …'" he said.
"I think it's good for the overall health of kids," he said. "They're just so addicted to social media, that I think when we get in school, we have to have it be a healthy, safe place four our kids."
The move to ban phones at the high school followed a two-year trial at East Jackson Middle School that served as a "litmus test," and Jackson officials are now encouraging other schools and districts to consider the same.
Michigan's Tomlinson Middle School, Melvindale High School, MacDonald Middle School, and others have had similar success with improving student behavior and academics by banning phones, echoing research from Central Michigan University, the New York Institute of Technology and California State University that correlated increased learning, better comprehension, lower anxiety, and more mindfulness with a decline in smartphone use.
Those studies, along with trial runs in schools across the country, have convinced lawmakers in some states to consider or implement statewide cell phone bans as a means to improve student learning and reduce behavioral problems that have increased in many places since the pandemic.
Through mid-June, only Indiana, Florida, and Ohio have banned cell phones statewide, while lawmakers in New York, Oklahoma, and Missouri are considering the same, Bridge Michigan reports.
But in Michigan, legislators remain hostile to the idea.
Just ask former state Rep. Gary Wisen, R-St. Clair Township, who sponsored legislation in 2022 to impose a statewide ban that never made it out of committee, despite the potential to regain student learning lost from government-imposed school closures during the pandemic.
During Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's tenure, fourth-grade reading scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress plummeted from 32nd nationally in 2019 to 43rd in 2022.
As it stands now, only about 41.6% of third-graders are proficient in reading, a figure that's at 16% for black third-graders, or more than 10% behind students still learning English at 26.4%, according to 2022 data.
At the current pace of recovery, according to one analysis, it could take students decades to return to pre-pandemic proficiency in reading.
Regardless, Plymouth Democratic Rep. Matt Koleszar, a former teacher, told Bridge he "would be uncomfortable with a state mandate on (cell phone bans in classrooms) as no two communities are the same."
Rep. Brad Paquette, R-Niles, described the proposal for a statewide ban as "one of the worst ideas that we could come up with as legislators" because it's a "cultural learning issue where kids are gonna have to learn how to deal with these distractors at some point in their life."
No lawmakers have proposed a statewide school phone ban in the current session.
Parents, meanwhile, have mixed feeling, with some concerned about infringing on local control and contact during emergency situations like school shootings though most seem to acknowledge that some kind of action is necessary.
"Are teenagers making the smartest decisions about cellphones? No, they're not," Sarah Giddings, teacher and mother of two in the Saline School District, told Chalkbeat Detroit in 2022. "They're using it as a distraction device like adults do. The difference is they don't have the self-control to say, 'This is affecting my work. I need to put it down,' like an adult would."
East Jackson High School students 'relieved' after cell phone ban - The Midwesterner
At East Jackson High School, “engagement is up, and drama is down – exponentially” after school officials last year banned cell phones in class, according to Principal Joel Cook. “When you take away the compulsion to address Snapchat and TikTok, kids find themselves having to concentrate and...
