NJ cellphone ban in schools: How one school is making it work
Phone-free school push continues in NJ
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy visited Woodbury High School to see more of how their cellphone-free school is evolving as the push for the program statewide continues.
WOODBURY, N.J. - About a month after Governor Phil Murphy proposed a statewide ban on cellphones in school classrooms, Wednesday he visited Gloucester County, where a school already put that ban in action.
The initiative keeps students’ phones locked away until the final school bell.
What we know:
Woodbury Junior-Senior High School started a policy in September where students put their phone in a locked pouch the entire school day.
Governor Murphy says his budget proposal will include $3 million for grants for other districts to adopt a similar policy.
What they're saying:
"Obviously, it’s a big adjustment for the entire school, but we’re able to, as seniors, live more in the moment," says Kaitlyn Wink, a senior at Woodbury High School. "I was really attached to my phone and sometimes when I would feel a buzz, I would just take it out, and I wasn’t even thinking about it. We weren’t really too excited about it when it first came in, but when September came around, and we were actually starting, it was better."
"You’ve got a mental health crisis among youth that was only exacerbated by the pandemic," Governor Murphy stated. "If we can envision reversing that, bending that curve in the right direction, you can see huge positive impacts, less stress, less mental health challenges, better performance academically, better social skills."
NJ Gov. Phil Murphy proposes statewide smartphone ban in K-12 classrooms
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has proposed a statewide ban on smartphones in K-12 classrooms during his final State of the State address Tuesday afternoon.
Big picture view:
Principal Dwayne Dobbins Jr. says they have already seen positive impacts.
"We have less fights, less cyber harassment, less distractions in general," he says.
Dobbins Jr. says students keep the pouch with them and can access a base to unlock it, which are across the school, in the event they need to call home.
"We have these on the wall, or we have these bases here, in strategic places, where they unlock your phone," he says.
School officials say some concerns about emergencies have been their biggest pushback.
"I know that’s a very legitimate concern, particularly in this day and age where you have so much tragedy around schools in America, but I felt like they really thought this through," says Governor Murphy.
What's next:
Wednesday’s visit and roundtable discussion comes as a bill moves through the legislature that would require the Department of Education to develop guidelines for districts to make their own policies on cell phone use in school.