Arkansas pilot program tests school cellphone ban to aid students' mental health
As students at John L. Colbert Middle School in Fayetteville, Arkansas, attended the first day of school in August, principal Warren Collier knew cellphones were in every backpack. The phones, however, per a new rule, were required to stay in backpacks throughout the school day.
The school is part of the 112 districts that have signed on for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' pilot program to establish "phone-free" schools to enhance student mental health and reduce screen addiction. The initiative is financed by $7 million in state funding for schools to buy phone storage pouches or lock mechanisms.
"So cellphones are not allowed," Collier said. "So they have to keep them in their backpack all day."
Huckabee Sanders wants schools to act to help clear young minds that are overwhelmed with texts and Snapchats rather than being focused on subjects like English and Algebra.
"Certainly, I would be supportive not just from a state level but also a federal perspective," Huckabee Sanders said. "I don't think it's ever been harder to be a kid than it is right now. There's so many pressures, so many expectations and so much influence on everything that you do and so often not coming from the best places."
While most parents recognize the importance of this issue, some are divided when it comes to separating children from their phones.
"I think it's a way we can communicate with our child when we need to communicate with them," parent Candace Sheppard said. "But there's a double-edged sword."
Nearly a dozen states have already passed laws prohibiting students from using smartphones in school. Huckabee Sanders is also working to implement similar regulations for her entire state.
Huckabee Sanders, a mother of three school-age children, was inspired to change the rules in Arkansas after reading the book, "The Anxious Generation" by Jonathan David Haidt. This bestselling book has become a guiding resource for many frustrated American educators.
Haidt argues that schoolchildren today are worse off due to early smartphone usage.
"Well, as a college professor, we all began to notice that in 2014, 2015, the students coming in were really different from the students a few years earlier," said Haidt, a professor at New York University. "They were much more anxious and depressed, much more fragile."
He notes that after 2012, there was a significant increase in the number of students diagnosed with anxiety and mental illness. He suggests that this rise is no coincidence, as it coincided with the period when people began replacing their old flip phones with smartphones, bringing the stresses of the internet and social media into the palm of their hands.
"Almost everyone had a smartphone front-facing camera on Instagram," Haidt said. "And now it's normal for kids to be doing this (hands to his face) all day long. And that, I believe, is what caused this huge increase in anxiety, depression, self-harm."
Haidt's solutions are gaining popularity, suggesting that children should not have smartphones before high school and should avoid social media until they turn 16.
He advises parents to encourage their kids to play outdoors with other children, allowing for minimal adult supervision.
"We've got to give kids back a childhood worth having," Haidt said. "Worth remembering."
Huckabee Sanders sent a copy of Haidt's book to every lawmaker in her state and to every governor in the country.
Additionally, she is traveling across Arkansas to encourage more schools to adopt a smartphone-free policy.
Some parents she spoke with mentioned that they and their kids are learning to adjust to being students without their devices. At the same time, one superintendent observed a significant decrease in major disciplinary events compared to last year.
"We're down almost 50%," John Wolford said. "And those are things like fights, insubordination, that kind of stuff. And these are things that often stem from some sort of social media or texting."
Huckabee Sanders has expressed her enjoyment in hearing this, saying it reassures her that her actions benefit schools, children and the learning process.
"Knowing that there are things that we can do that can help make this better and stop some of the mental health crisis that's going on in our country, I think that is probably one of the biggest takeaways," Huckabee Sanders said.
