A Teacher's View: VT Legislature needs to ban cellphones from schools

The Chester Telegraph | Feb 10, 2025 (This was published a couple months ago, but we missed posting it here!)

Two teenage boys near each other, sitting on steps, both looking into their cell phones. Image by natureaddict from Pixabay

I am a science teacher at Green Mountain UHS in Chester. I urge you to support the Phone- and Social Media-Free Schools bill in the legislature (H.54 and S.21). When I first heard of such a bill, I thought it was over the top. But, I read the testimony from last session, reflected on my own experiences and researched. I am now convinced we need this legislation.

Our students are addicted to their cellphones. Delaying a vote or waiting for local school boards to have time to deal with it individually only compounds the problem. Keeping phones in backpacks for the day is akin to giving a heroin addict a full bag of heroin, asking them to keep it in their backpack for the day.

I need students to be on time to class – alert, focused, reading the board. I don’t need students coming into class staring at their phones, needing to leave five minutes into class to use the restroom because they stood in the hallway on their phone for the whole passing period.

I need students thinking about the topic at hand and delving deeper with me. I need them to see they can be the leaders of tomorrow, not worried about things they just read off social media sites (most likely something they will not care about by the time class is over).

I need students interacting with me, telling me about their world, joking with me. As a 30-year veteran teacher/administrator, I used to have less-distracted, less-worried, less-anxious and less-depressed students. One way to get them back is to give them space from their phones and social media for the entire school day.

Plunking devices into backpacks or shoe organizers at the start of classes won’t do the job. We’ve tried that. If the phone is accessible, they will be distracted by the thought of it and try to use it. It becomes a constant, everyday, every period battle that wastes limited time we have in class and reduces teacher morale.

Like everything else in life, it isn’t every student. But, it’s bad enough, in enough students, to need this legislation for all our students so they all may benefit.

I hope the legislature will take up the Phone- and Social Media-Free Schools bill as soon as possible and not put it off or pass it onto another body.

Michael Ripley

Proctorsville