Pan the Ban: The Real Problem Underlying School Cell Phone Policies

With the rise in school shootings, hate crimes, cyberbullying, social behavioral incidents, and harassment among students in our schools, there have been policies and measures put in place to mitigate, intervene, and remediate these situations. They include the assessment of risk and threat of them happening, training, education, and awareness, response plans, and to some extent, technology to identify early warning signs.

The challenge with the latter of these efforts is the public domain in which we can, as independent schools, preside over and oversee student behavior and communication. Cell phones are the means for which people have access to a myriad of resources, tools, and communication, but they are only one facet of a student’s digital life and engagement. Computers, video game consoles, and other electronic devices round out this ecosystem, and schools are limited in their ability to monitor and moderate over this world.

In our school we provide devices and platforms for students to engage and learn. However, we simply do not do enough to prepare, educate, and support our students as they navigate the nuances of use. Beginning in Kindergarten students are assigned a tablet for the year to use at school. As they progress through to Fifth Grade they are given the privilege and responsibility to take the device home for school assignments. We saw an uptick in hate speech via digital means this last year and it was troublesome. Many initially pointed to technology as the blame, and while access was certainly provided by the issuance of a Google for Education account and a device to work and communicate with, the tenor and tone of the behavior speaks to a broader issue.

How often can we observe toddlers in shopping carts playing with a tablet or cell phone, walking aimlessly through a zoo or park, only to be playing Pokemon Go, or buried in the corner of a restaurant with the glow of a device illuminating their face while the rest of the table is engaged in conversation?

These manifested behaviors are being systematically coded into our children at very early age and create an anti-social and reclusive relationship with technology. As they get older, the heavily curated world portrayed through Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Instagram becomes the learning platform for social norms, behaviors, and interactions. Pause and reflect on this for a moment, social cues and values are being passively taught to our children via memes, Snaps, and short form videos.

As we approach the school year with cell phone bans on the rise, the greatest concern should not be the devices they bring, but their engagement with the devices when they are not at school, late at night, in the car, at a sleepover, or at a game. The proverbial putting the head in the sand is at play in schools and we are simply afraid to confront the real problem. Placing technology at the crosshairs of this issue is a scapegoat for our own systemic failure to raise our children in a way that provides real world experiences and values authentic connections. I do get it, more parents are working than ever and time is our greatest commodity, but we are over engineering our children’s lives in lieu of serendipity and discovery. Putting devices and technology in its place is needed, but banning them from schools is not going to solve the social behavioral problems they are meant to obviate.

Let’s instead create social spaces and places for children to engage and play outside of school and learn to be humans in society. If schools have a role and responsibility in helping parents navigate these issues, then they should lean heavily on policies and practices that help inform and guide students in their use of technology platforms, but it needs to be clearer where the line of authority begins and ends. Engagement on social media should not be the domain for which we are responsible for, yet so often schools and administrators are called upon to mediate and judicate issues between community members. This is a walk through a thorny path that I would caution against. There needs to be a stronger culture of partnership that clearly articulates the role of the school as a resource for education and support, and not as an arbiter of social dysfunction among students and parents.

We need to teach our students how to navigate technology and the digital world in a measured and responsible way. But we also need to find ways to change our parenting relationships with technology and the role it plays in raising our children. Their lives depend on it.