While phones can be useful for many things, in the classroom they become a distraction. A survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that 7 in 10 high school teachers say that phone usage in schools is a major problem. Kim Reynolds, the governor of Iowa, has decided to address this issue. On January 14th in her Condition of the State Address she proposed a statewide phone ban for instructional time in schools. She has already gone to work on her proposal and introduced a bill on January 24th to restrict phone usage during school hours. However, some are skeptical about how the state government is going to enforce cell phone restrictions in schools, since all teachers run their classrooms differently.
“I think that they would have to have very minimal restrictions if they made a state mandate because there’s no way that the specific laws would be able to work for every teacher. It would have to be very broad since not every classroom is run the same way,” said Christine Coyne-Logan who has had a relatively strict phone policy in her classroom for about six years now.
When talking about her classroom’s consistently strict phone policy, Coyne-Logan said, “I do not compromise on the phone policy, and it’s not out of disrespect. It’s out of the love and passion I have for my job. If I put a lot of time and effort into my lesson plans, I’d appreciate everyone’s full attention and respect.”
Some teachers like Mrs. Coyne-Logan make their students put their phones up for the full class, while others take a more laid back approach for their classes.
“Before this year, my phone policy was for my students to just put up their phones during labs and tests. Now I make my students put them up for instructional time too,” said Amy Jensen. However, she also said that, “there are certain classes I am more relaxed with because I know those students are going to be responsible and get their work done so it’s not a problem for them to have their phones on them.”
While the state government taking action on phone restrictions is new, the bill will likely just establish minimum requirements to still allow for some flexibility.
“I think that under Kim Reynolds the flexibility will still be there. It’s going to be during instructional time that the phones need to be put away and that’s basically where we already are,” said Associate Principal Dr. Hassig.
Since the Davenport District has already started to put phone policies in place during instruction time, the possible law change will not affect what was put in place this school year.
When asked if Davenport West’s phone policy will change as a result of the bill, associate principal, Michael Orfitelli said, “the bottom line is that we would ensure that our policies meet the legal requirements and adhere to what we believe to be the best practice.”
Putting a phone ban into legislation may actually help school administrators better enforce phone policies.
“I think that it being a law actually will help us in conversations with both students and their parents because this isn’t just a West thing or a district thing, it’s a law thing. This is something we’ve got to do,” said Dr. Hassig
While some people are skeptical about the government taking action on phone usage in schools, their intervention will be minimal. Since the bill will be more of a blanket statement for schools to follow it will allow adaptability for all classroom styles. Even though some schools already have phone policies in place, they will be able to stay similar due to the flexibility that the bill will allow. Additionally, if a phone ban during instructional time is put into law, school administrators will have an easier time enforcing their own phone policies since there will now be legislation banning phone use during that instructional time.
