What Educators Are Saying about cellphones in schools...
“In an era where phones are everywhere, the impact of these devices on students has never been more critical.” — Christopher Kazim, Port Chester Teachers Association.
“It is a constant distraction. It is a daily battle, that ‘put your phone away.’ ‘Put your phone away.’ If it’s away and they can’t even get to it, that makes it just easier to educate and that’s what we’re here to do.” — Dan Wagner, East Greenbush Teachers Association.
“When we banned cellphones at our high school, our discipline referrals went down 65 percent.” — David Rounds, Bethlehem Teachers Association.
“As technology progresses, our policies have to evolve to keep pace with it.” — Natalie McKay, Schoharie Teachers Association.
“We can all agree that during the school day, students should be engaged in the school itself, engaged in their schoolwork, interacting with their friends and teachers, not staring at their phones.” — Jonathan Hansonbrook, Edgemont Teachers Association.
“We don’t know the long-term effects of social media and cellphone use and what impacts it’s going to have on children’s development. We have to put some guardrails up when it comes to using these platforms.” — Trish Hoyer, New Hartford Teachers Association.
“Even as I talk to you, they’re doing this to other kids because no one is stopping them.” — Mary Rodee, Canton Central Teachers Association, whose son died by suicide after being the victim of sexual extortion on Facebook.
What Healthcare Professionals are Saying...
“A child’s developing brain is not ready to deal with the onslaught of information that’s coming in. They do not have the proper reasoning skills. They do not know what’s real and what isn’t.” — Lysa Mullady, New York State School Counselors Association.
“The number and the severity of the mental health issues that we’ve seen over the past 10 years has been significant.” — Mary Banzsak, President Elect NYS School Counselor Association.
“I have been in practice 25 years, and this is a big issue in the field of pediatrics. The shift in what we do in the pediatrics field has been immense. We’re talking about the level of prescriptions, counseling and programs we now provide in pediatrics....The amount of what we are being asked to do is just astounding.” — Dr. Dennis Kuo, Chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Rochester
“I was there way before the pandemic, and I saw the incredible shift in the social skills of students. The level of impulsivity now that I see, was not seen before. It’s just constantly reacting, reacting, reacting, with no pause for anything.” — Maria Gonzalez, school psychologist for Rochester City Schools.
“The only thing I can say is that in the last 10-12 years the diagnosis of anxiety and depression and the number of students that I used to see in the nurse’s office has probably tripled.” — Margaret Miller, Nurse Supervisor, North Syracuse Central School District.
“The reason it’s addictive is because it’s designed to be addictive. That’s how they make money...We’re creating a generation of children who are not prepared to then enter adolescence and adulthood, and it’s going to continue to get worse unless we intervene now.” — Katie Sebo, New York Association of School Psychologists.
What Law Enforcement is saying...
“The use of mobile phones by students during a quickly developing school emergency is a distraction that could compromise the safety of students and school staff. State Police and local law enforcement will support school districts as they implement new cell phone policies as part of their school safety plans.” — New York State Police Superintendent Steven James
“Between the bullying, and the lack of situational awareness and just the social disconnect that leads us to support not having the phones.” — Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple
“As a school resource officer, I would feel much more safe if we had cell phones out of our schools.” — David Jarczyk, West Seneca Police Department.
“I’ve been in the unit for 3 years now and from when I’ve started, it’s probably quadrupled, how many cases we’re getting as far as sextortion goes…We try to give presentations at the beginning of every school year at some of the local schools and I try to press with the parents and kids, you know, ‘Please, smart social media usage. Safe social media usage. Parents, be aware of what your kids are doing,’ but still throughout the year, we have dozens of cases of sextortion.” — Detective R.M. Schruise, Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department.
What administrators are saying...
“When our administration first proposed a complete cellphone ban to the board, I fully supported it. I knew that the high school had previously tried restricting cellphone use in classrooms but those efforts didn’t seem to be enough and they didn’t seem to address the deeper issue of the negative impact of cellphones on social interactions throughout the day.” — Holly Dellenbaugh, President of the Bethlehem Central Board of Education
“Remember when they first banned smoking in restaurants? We did studies so we knew there were dangers from second-hand smoke, so we banned smoking in restaurants. Well, it’s the same thing here. We know the negative effects that cellphones have on teenagers. If we know better, we need to do better, so I’m glad that the governor is putting this in.” — Principal Andrew Bowen, Williamsville North High School
“I do think parents have come to appreciate the [no phone] policy. It’s certainly scary for them at first. It’s really just about working together and trying to educate the families about why it’s important.” — Principal Jennifer Springer, Lackawanna High School
“This isn’t just teaching kids to stay off their phones in school. Our distraction free environment approach in Schoharie has taught kids to be more distraction free even when they have their phones.” — David Blanchard, Superintendent of Schoharie Central School District