Should Florida school cellphone bans include lunchtime?
The trend of restricting student cellphone use in school has gained momentum across the nation since Florida lawmakers adopted limitations in 2023. In the past month alone, officials in New York, Missouri, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas have taken steps to ban cellphones in classrooms.
Meanwhile, Florida lawmakers are considering additional constraints.
State Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyrhills, has proposed creating a pilot program (SB 1296) to explore the viability of prohibiting cellphone use whenever students are on campus or participating in school-sponsored activities off campus.
The proposal caught the eye of Hillsborough County school board member Lynn Gray. She asked her colleagues this week if they’d like to stop students from using their phones at lunchtime, which district policy currently allows in high schools, without waiting for lawmakers.
Gray said students have used phones to cheat on coursework, coordinate fights, bully one another, and more. “I can guarantee you, our teenagers are in bad shape from cellphone use,” Gray said during a workshop.
The idea didn’t get far. Other board members raised objections, saying some students use their phones to decompress during down time. Some have other legitimate reasons to have their phones out, they added, such as communicating with their parents or jobs. Plus, enforcement could be problematic.
“What are we going to do? Expel a kid or change placement for a kid or suspend a kid for cellphones? We decided not to do that,” said board member Henry “Shake” Washington, a veteran former principal.
The board decided to wait and see what, if anything, the Florida Legislature does. In the meantime, chairperson Jessica Vaughn suggested the district work on maintaining its current rules.
“While I appreciate Hillsborough County wanting to be on the forefront of everything, I also think that sometimes we can sit back and let some other counties test things out so we can see what is best practice for our students and for our teachers,” Vaughn said.