Schools Silence Cellphones

Addison Pendegraft, online editor

Anaya Riaz, staff writer

School districts across the United States are adopting phone restrictions ranging from “phones away during class” to full-day, or “bell-to-bell bans.” Bell-to-bell bans mean that the restriction is not limited to just instructional or classroom time; it remains in effect during hallways passing periods, lunch breaks and study halls. This is the strictest of the bans, which typically employe pouches or boxes for students to leave their phones during the class period and for teachers to monitor. 39 U.S. states now practice some form of phone restriction, with several adopting the bell-to-bell bans. This enforcement of the ban has skyrocketed in popularity from last year, with an increase of four more states from 2025. 

According to Ballotpedia, Georgia's specific ban states that, "Beginning no later than July 1, 2027, no public school student in grades nine through 12 shall be permitted to access personal electronic devices during the school day, except as otherwise provided in this Code section or required by law." 

Johns Creek High School (JCHS) will be no exception, with the bell-to-bell ban being passed in March of last year by our state governments. So, phones will be completely prohibited to have on school campus starting next year. 

This restriction has gotten quite a bit of mixed feedback from either side. Some say that students are too distracted by their phones and their presence dilutes the student's learning environment. However, others believe that taking away access to phones can be a major safety issue for the students who aren't able to contact their parent and that it's an unnecessary micromanagement for students who feel like they're being treated as children instead of learning proper self-control and natural consequences.  

“It is nice to check in with parents or friends during the day,” said Maya Edison, a student of JCHS.  

The new policy will affect both students and teachers. Teachers won’t must keep requesting students to put away devices. Students who need to contact a parent during class may have to ask a teacher or visit the front office instead of using a personal phone. This is something students worry about because she usually uses her phone during flex and lunch rather than class. Many classes and schools have found a current solution, the phone pockets where students put their devices in a pocket in front of the class. 

“This is going to help the mental health of our students, it’s going to help our students’ grades, it’s going to help their test scores and it’s going to make our schools safer. There’s going to be fewer fights, fewer discipline,” said Scott Hilton, a Georgia State Representative who authored both HB 1009 and the current K-8 personal device ban. 

Though, many students also believe that phones are important to have when plans change or when someone needs to ride home. That the culture of passing knowledge has changed and adapted throughout the years and going back in time in that sense can be quite unfair to them. However, fewer devices could make instructional time easier for teachers by reducing distractions and helping students remain focused on their schoolwork. Fulton County Schools states that the policy is meant to encourage responsible technology to use and provide reliable access to district learning tools. 

A 2025 peer reviewed study known as the SMART Schools study, examined more than 1,200 adolescents ages 12 to 15 across 30 different secondary schools. Students in schools with restrictive policies spent about 40 minutes less on their phones and about 32 minutes less on social media during school hours. This study also reported that greater smartphone and social media use was associated with poorer outcomes with respect to anxiety, depression and sleep. 

Removing smartphones can eliminate distraction from the classroom setting. However, there are clear benefits for phones in the hands of students. Research also shows that social media and phones can keep kids and adolescents connected by fostering a sense of community, can allow adolescents to express themselves and can also promote problem-solving skills. 

The National Bureau of Economic Research conducted a three-year study about schools that banned and did not ban phones across 43,000 schools nationwide. According to this study, these phone-ban policies did effectively reduce personal device usage during the school day but had no major impact on many measures: not on student test scores, attendance, or attention in class. The ban did not even have a major impact on perceived cyberbullying. 

But Fulton County is not alone in restricting personal devices, though policies vary by location. Forsyth County has stricter rules, requiring high school students to store their devices from bell to bell except during lunch. Gwinnett County approved districtwide restrictions for kindergarten through eighth grade but did not extend them to high school students. Outside of Georgia, Florida follows rules like Fulton’s, while South Carolina requires students to avoid personal devices for the entire school day. These differences show that schools are working toward fewer distractions but disagree on how strict the rules should be.