Lancaster, Pennsylvania – Even though most schools don’t let people bring cell phones, some kids are still doing so. Ryan Aument, a Republican from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, wants to limit the amount of time students spend on their phones in school.
“It has changed the way teens’ brains work in a really troubling way,” Aument said.
He thinks that schools should try out a pilot scheme.
“Schools don’t have to take part, but if they do, they might be able to get grant money for cell phone lockers,” he said. “The phones would be locked up while the kids were at school.”
The kids wouldn’t have it in their lockers. They would be moved to a different spot where kids can’t get to the phones.
Aument said that kids’ bad mental health is caused by their cell phones.
Aument said, “Between about 2010 and 2013, it had to do with the fact that more and more students had direct access to smartphones and social media.”
His suggested law includes numbers showing that the number of depressed teens is rising by 150%.
He says that statewide math and reading scores fell for the first time in 25 years in 2012.
Kaili Linask, a student at Franklin and Marshall College, could have used her phone to talk to her family during times in high school.
“There was a gas leak, and everyone’s phones were locked up, so no one could talk to anyone else,” Linask said.
Parents and kids were worried because they couldn’t use their phones for two more days while school was closed.
Someone also tried to lock down Linask’s school.
“They called the lockdown because our new teacher didn’t know that the resource officer was supposed to have a gun at my school,” she said. “Everyone is freaking out and texting their parents, ‘I don’t know what’s going on right now, but it’s bad.'”
Aument says that the number of kids in the U.S. who had a smartphone rose from 23% in 2010 to 73% in 2015.
Augment hopes to finish writing the law’s wording soon. Once that is done, he plans to bring in experts to talk about data with Senate members.
