Duh

https://leoterrell.com/2025/01...ults-have-been-wild/

A Florida school district that banned student cell phone use this school year is reporting fewer problems and better grades.

Broward County Public Schools banned any phone use, including at lunchtime, according to WTVJ-TV.

“I’ve noticed a lot more creativity with students, I think their attention spans are a little longer, they have excellent conversations in their groups, those conversations are lasting longer, our class discussions are definitely a lot longer and they’re a lot deeper because no one’s really focused on checking their phone,” Dan Katz, who teaches drama and law at Fort Lauderdale High School, said.

School board member Allen Zeman said fights are down 17 percent from the same point a year ago.

The top reason, he said, appears to be the cellphone ban.

According to school administrators, he said, “the lack of cellphones is taking away an ability for people to organize fights and organize big numbers of people to get together and fight during or after school.

“The lack of cellphones leads to fewer fights to fights with fewer people that last fewer minutes and it also reduces cyber bullying which is something that causes fights and then it stops the recording of fights which stops people from doing the right thing and trying to make sure that the fights are ended,” he said.

Zeman said academic achievement has improved throughout the schools because of the policy.

“This year, at the halfway point, our gains are greater than they were, the gains, from last year,” Zeman said.

“I had a teacher write to us and say for the first time in 10 years, for each student in her classroom, she had two eyeballs watching her give a lecture,” he said.

A Broward County Schools news release said that banning cell phone use, even during lunch, led to “[p]rioritizing school as a place for learning that is distraction-free. This can help students stay focused on academics and maintain a learning mindset throughout the school day.”

The release said the ban also eliminates “the opportunity for students to have pictures and videos captured of them by other students without their permission during the school day,” and also minimizes “inappropriate use of social media.”

Although Broward County is ahead of the curve with its ban, the connection between technology and violence is known across the country, according to The New York Times.

“Cellphones and technology are the No. 1 source of soliciting fights, advertising fights, documenting — and almost glorifying — fights by students,” Kelly Stewart, an assistant principal at Juneau-Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska, said. “It is a huge issue.”

Lt. Alan Bates of the Novato, California, Police Department, told the Times about an incident in May in which several middle school girls made an Instagram video about an attack they were planning on another student.

They assigned girls to act as lookouts and others to guard their backpacks during the attack.

Novato police charged several teens with felony assault for the technology-linked beatdown.

“The aggression begins in technology, continues through the technology in the planning for the fights and comes to a head in physical confrontation,” Bates said.

Predictable. IMO cell phones should be restricted to 18+ year olds like alcohol and tobacco.

New Mexico at least in my area allow phones in school as long as the phone is off and out of sight.

I'd say 99% of the school fights here in middle school and elementary are girl fights.

At middle school the fights are at lunch in the outside court yard. Spectators have their phones out taking videos then airdropped so the others can watch and teachers.

So many girl fights seems strange to me. The girls are vicious.

The school wanted to ban cell phones, but the parents complained.

The schools will take the phones if they see a student using it, then a parent must retrieve it.

.

Deep Blue Broward County, home of Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (worst person to hit Broward ever), has been against the cellphone ban until recently. The ban is due to a state law passed in 2023, with the backing of DeSantis (a former History teacher). This article is probably Broward County trying to look like they're ahead of the curve.

Both my kids are Broward products.

Here's an article from a couple of months ago with Broward against the ban:

https://apnews.com/article/flo...5fb9a776f4384602a1a1

I am all for no phone use while in the classroom. However, I am a staunch advocate for female students and even adult females to have cell phones with and available to them at all times.

I worked sex crimes and cant tell you how many pervert cases I handled where the male driver pulls up to the female walking along and trying to get her into the car.

Those very few who had the wits to pull out their phone and start snapping pictures of the pervert and his car made my day. The pervert sped off and I wasn't far behind to put him in bracelets.

Good

Starting to be a thing. If on, most can’t avoid looking and fiddling.

quote:

“Cellphones and technology are the No. 1 source of soliciting fights, advertising fights, documenting — and almost glorifying — fights by students,” Kelly Stewart, an assistant principal at Juneau-Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska, said. “It is a huge issue.”

And smartphones are the primary tool for quickly organizing the large mob takeover robberies of stores like Louis Vuitton, Apple, and other retailers. And of course Antifa, BLM, etc use cellphones to quickly organize huge riots and protests.

I'm thankful my daughter has her phone at school. Parents just have to set rules.

It's good for things like:
I'm staying late to attend math tutoring.

First Florida led the way with Shall Issue, then the Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground, now in banning the use of mobile devices on school grounds during school hours.

In each case these initiatives led to positive outcomes.

Meanwhile, in "progressive" California...

I'm not surprised at all.
Florida seems to do a number of things that actually make sense.

The problem is the rules were never enforced prior and the higher-ups would let the children get away with pretty much anything. I wish they would concentrate more on dealing with the problem children/bullies/delinquents/gang members more than they are.

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:

quote:

“Cellphones and technology are the No. 1 source of soliciting fights, advertising fights, documenting — and almost glorifying — fights by students,” Kelly Stewart, an assistant principal at Juneau-Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska, said. “It is a huge issue.”

And smartphones are the primary tool for quickly organizing the large mob takeover robberies of stores like Louis Vuitton, Apple, and other retailers. And of course Antifa, BLM, etc use cellphones to quickly organize huge riots and protests.

Blaming an inanimate object for its misuse by others. Where have I heard that before?

I completely agree with disallowing cell phone use on school grounds during school hours. But, again like gun laws, that has existed for many years but has apparently not been enforced.

A local high school is implementing Yondr pouches. It is pretty cool. The phone is put into a pouch, which the students keep and then it is locked and it is unlocked when they exit at the end of the day.

quote:

Originally posted by redstone:

A local high school is implementing Yondr pouches. It is pretty cool. The phone is put into a pouch, which the students keep and then it is locked and it is unlocked when they exit at the end of the day.

Seems like a pretty good idea, but phone needs to be accessible in the event of a genuine emergency.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

Blaming an inanimate object for its misuse by others. Where have I heard that before?

I completely agree with disallowing cell phone use on school grounds during school hours. But, again like gun laws, that has existed for many years but has apparently not been enforced.

Cell Phone "laws" have no fucking direct comparison to gun laws, get off that fucking shit.

"Blaming an inanimate object" argument with guns vs cell phones is stupid. Guns are "protected" under the 2nd Amendment. Cell phone aren't. I have made the statement that smartphones are the primary tool for Anitifa and BLM, and that is fact. "Blamimg" cell phones on the violence of Antifa and BLM, no I had not made that connection.

But at the end of the day, if all smartphones disappeared from this planet right now, I would have to get a glass of 18 yo Macallans and celebrate.

Good. Our local elementary and middle schools dictate the cellphones have to be left I. The student’s locker and can be used between classes. The local high schools, as far as I know, let them have them all the time. What a mess. They can’t figure out why these kids can’t write a sentence.

The worst part of the cellphone use by students was during an active shooter scare(turned out to be a fake). All the high school students were texting a calling parents. Parents texting and calling students and overwhelming 911. It was the worst part of it. The rumors that were flying and people freaking out. While they were deciphering the real story from the rumor mill I looked at my Sgt. and said all we needed was Russian and Cuban paratroopers landing on the football field and it would be perfect!!! Wolverines!!!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Seems like a pretty good idea, but phone needs to be accessible in the event of a genuine emergency.

I don't buy this argument. For a couple of hundred thousand years, the human race got along just fine without cell phones. Somehow or another, I was able to contact who I needed to contact if I needed to contact them when I was a kid. Every school office has a phone. Every adult has a cell phone. Kids do not need to be in constant contact with everyone all of the time. They just don't. Yeah, sometimes emergencies happen. Emergencies have always happened and we've lived through those times just fine.

I have long maintained that no kid under the age of 17-18 should have a smart phone. IF they must have a phone, the only allowance that I would make would be a basic flip phone that only makes calls. No texts, no internet, no pictures, no apps. Phone calls with 911 and their parents programmed in. That's it, and even those would not be allowed in the school.

And oddball, I don't care for scotch, but I'd damn sure join you for one. What a joyous day it would be.

We opened a second high school. No cellphones during school. The old high school tried it. Worked for use, not the other. Then the superintendent got into it. He favored the old school. By the end of the year both schools had phones everywhere.
I’d confiscate a phone. Just as class ended the front office was calling. Patent has approved giving the phone back. Where is it?
We actually had kids, pull their SIM card, put it in a different phone, then hand the first phone in.
Seriously, I looked into cellphone blockers for my classroom.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

Somehow or another, I was able to contact who I needed to contact if I needed to contact them when I was a kid.

Me too. But landline phones and pay phones were everywhere. Not so much, today.