"It's already hard to get them locked in on a topic they don't really care about," she said. "It's even worse when I'm competing with their friends on Snapchat."
But two years ago, Lincoln Parish, where Ruston High is located, imposed a district-wide ban prohibiting phone use during the day. Suddenly, students were more attentive in class, their behavior improved and reports of bullying decreased.
"Just the focus of the kids is way better," Phillips said.
Now, public schools across Louisiana will follow in Lincoln Parish's footsteps after the Legislature voted overwhelmingly to approve a bill this week requiring students to stow their phones away during class — a decision that comes as state governments across the country take steps to fight back against excessive teen phone use, citing growing research on its negative impact on brain development and mental health.
And it isn't just lawmakers pushing the bans. Some students are on board, saying phones make it harder to pay attention and can add to the social pressures they feel to stay tapped in to what's happening on social media.
"I feel like it's really effective in improving the school environment," RHS freshman Harper Anderson said.
Other students are more apprehensive, worried about being unable to reach loved ones during a school emergency
"There have been a few times when I've been in bomb threat situations, and I do really want to text my mom," said Charlotte DeClouet, a freshman at Lafayette High School who noted that many of her classmates share fears about school gun violence, which surged during the pandemic. "I feel like that's a big negative."
The law's sponsor, Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, said she proposed the legislation after hearing social psychologist Jonathan Haidt speak about how cellphones create constant distractions for students and increase feelings of loneliness.
Under the bill, which next heads to the governor's desk for signature, schools will have the flexibility to decide how they want to implement the ban. Mizell told the Senate last month that teachers could use numbered phone holders or Yondr bags, locked pouches often used at concert venues where phones are not permitted.
Districts will also have the freedom to decide if the law applies to phones, smartwatches, headphones or a combination of those, Mizell added, noting that the bill does not apply to students who need a cellphone as an accommodation for a learning disability.
The move has been a long time coming, she said.
"I think it's a good opportunity to address the obligation kids feel to be attached to their phone," Mizell said. "This is going to be, I believe, a very liberating step for young people."
A growing problem
Research has tied phones and social media use to a notable decline in teen mental health over the last several years. A University of Toronto analysis in 2020 concluded that evidence from numerous studies showed heavy smartphone use among adolescents contributed to chronic sleep deprivation and had negative effects on academic performance and social-emotional functioning.
Dr. Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer for the American Psychological Association and researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said teens' developing brains are more vulnerable to the draws of smartphones because their prefrontal cortex — the area of the brain that helps override impulsive urges — has not yet fully formed.
Some research suggests that excessive phone use "may even change how the brain grows, perhaps making kids hypersensitive to social feedback from peers," Prinstein said. As a result, "kids are reporting more social anxiety, and they're reporting less ability to interact spontaneously with one another."
A 2022 survey by the National Institutes of Health found that roughly 53% of children in the U.S. have a smartphone by age 11. That number soars as kids hit middle school, as more than 95% of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 report having access to a cell phone.
Kids who have phones use them often. Over 90% of teens surveyed reported using their phones to pass the time, while roughly 84% said they use them to connect with others or learn new things.
For some, the constant phone use can feel more like a burden than an escape. School cellphone bans give students an opportunity to disconnect for a few hours and focus on learning, said Ruston junior Brittany Gutierrez.
"It's going to allow kids to have a full separation from their phone and be more engaged in class," she said, adding that the ban may take pressure off students to keep up with their classmates online.
After doing her own research, Jeanne DeClouet, mother of the Lafayette High School student, decided with her husband to enforce strict limits on screen time and social media at home for their four children, ages 9-14.
"I feel like I'm just throwing noodles on the wall and seeing what sticks," she said, noting that the issue is largely uncharted territory for parents.
Despite her reservations, Charlotte DeClouet said she still sees value in keeping phones out of classrooms.
"When I have my phone in my room, I'm constantly reaching for it to see if that person texted me back or if I have any notifications," she said. "That can get really distracting."
Allen Collins, a basketball coach for the Jefferson Parish school system, said the mounting research on the negative effects of heavy phone use has made him regret giving his son, now a high school junior, his first phone at age 13.
"I think in trying to appease our kids, we gave them a phone," he said, "but we really didn't know what was lurking behind it."
A new trend
Indiana, Ohio and Florida have already enacted laws enforcing phone-free zones in schools, and several others, including Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, are now considering it.
Earlier this month, Ohio's Legislature passed a measure that will bar student access to cell phones and social media and require schools to teach kids in grades 6-12 about their negative social, emotional and physical effects.
In Vermont, lawmakers proposed a similar bill, arguing that phone and social media use in school exposes students to online products, poses data-privacy risks, and creates "an unsafe, disruptive and distracted learning environment," though the proposal was ultimately struck down.
Ruston High School principal Dan Gressett said his parish decided a district-wide ban was the way to go after administrators began noticing "a lot of inconsistencies" among classroom phone policies.
"It created a lot of confusion for the kids because the rules were different from class to class," he said.
After he and other Lincoln Parish principals took the issue to their superintendent, the district created a new policy that allowed students to keep their phones on them but required that the devices be kept out of sight during the school day.
"Is it perfect? Absolutely not. It's still dependent on how well it's enforced," Gressett said. "But it has a little more teeth to it now that it's a district policy, and teachers can throw the blame on somebody else if they need to."
Phillips, the Ruston English teacher, said that since the ban took effect, not only are her students more attentive, they're also kinder to one another. Even the school cafeteria has become livelier.
"Now that they can't have their phones, they're actually communicating in person," she said. "I think that's what we're here to do. That's what school is about."
© 2024 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
