Public schools must restrict student cellphone usage during the school day if Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs two bills the Michigan legislature passed last month.
House Bill 4141 would order public school districts or individual schools to ban wireless communication devices “on school grounds during instructional time.” Senate Bill 495 would require public schools to review emergency plans and protocol for the use of wireless communication devices in emergencies.
“You’re asking teachers to compete with the world’s most powerful entertainment medium: the internet,” State Representative Mark Tisdel, a Republican who represents Rochester and Rochester Hills and sponsored the House bill, told The Collegian. “It’s just common sense. You’re there to gain knowledge at the hands of an expensive and trained adult at the head of the classroom. We don’t need the distraction of TikTok or Instagram or Reddit.”
Tisdel said Whitmer had expressed the desire for bipartisan legislation to prohibit smartphones in public schools for this session. According to Rep. Jennifer Wortz, a Republican who represents Hillsdale and Branch counties, Whitmer is expected to sign the bills into law next week.
“While schools already had the power to make a policy to ban cellphones during the school day, this house bill now requires it,” Wortz said in a statement to The Collegian. “In the districts that have already developed a cellphone-free policy, they are seeing less distractions and better educational focus.”
While Tisdel originally proposed the complete prohibition of cellphones from school for grades K-5, from beginning to the end of the day from grades 6-8, and during instructional time for grades 9-12, he and Democrat Sen. Dayna Polehanki, chair of the Senate Education Committee, compromised to prohibit cellphones and communication devices only during instructional time for all grades, with allowances during passing periods and other non-educational times.
The bill also makes exceptions for medical and learning accommodation devices, school-issued devices, and emergency situations. Students can also still use “dumb phones” without internet access.
“The bill is just really to inhibit smartphone usage,” Wortz said. “We’ve seen study after study about the devastating effects of social media on young people. So, that’s where we could find common ground on those issues and make those changes.”
According to Superintendent of Hillsdale Community Schools Ted Davis, Hillsdale public schools already have similar restrictions in place.
“We don’t allow cellphones for our elementary school. Our middle school can use cellphones during before-school and after-school time and at lunch time. For high school, it’s just not during instructional time,” Davis said. “Basically, what has been passed, we’ve had it in play for the last probably two to three years.”
Davis said Hillsdale Community Schools have exceptions for students with various needs for devices as well as measures in place for handling emergency situations without the need for student cellphone usage.
Assistant Professor of Education David Diener said the removal of cellphones from educational spaces “can do nothing but improve” the quality of education.
“Cellphones are unnecessary. They’re, at best, a distraction and, at worst, undermine the process of education and the sanctity of the classroom as a sacred space where education between teachers and students takes place,” Diener said.
Diener said cellphone usage affects the way people think and interact with one another.
“Cellphones change the entire ecosystem of human communication inside and outside of the classroom,” Diener said. “That’s not to say that it’s all bad, but, yes, it’s had a pervasive effect that’s changed human communication and interaction.”
Tisdel said he is following this bill up with two more technology-related bills. House Bill 4388, which has already had a House hearing, would prohibit minors from using social media. He said he filed House Bill 5496 last week that imposes a 32% excise tax for smartphones for minors.
