EDITORIAL: Is it time to ban cell phones in Anchorage schools?

The advent of smartphones delivered, more than perhaps any other device, the promise of a high-tech future that the science fiction writers of the 1960s envisioned. An encyclopedia in your pocket. The ability to stay in contact wirelessly from most of the populated areas on the planet. And, with social media, a near-frictionless way to stay in touch with friends and family members near and far.

But before too long, the dark side of that technological innovation showed up, too. Social networks proved a near-ideal medium for spreading misinformation, sowing political division and preying on people’s insecurities and fears. The always-on nature of modern devices made it difficult for young people to partake in social activities without messages and alerts intruding — and for adults to maintain a work/life balance. And the ever-advancing “stickiness” of phone applications made the devices addictive, particularly for children who had never known what life was like before iPhones were a standard accessory.

The more we know about phone overuse and its effect on our young people, the clearer the picture grows. According to a research study of American teens ages 12-15, those who used social media for more than three hours each day faced twice the risk of having negative mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety symptoms. Push notifications distract us from tasks we’re trying to focus on and erode our attention span, leading us to check our phones dozens of times per day. And the relative anonymity of online spaces has made them prone to bullying and abusive behavior, particularly among young people who are most vulnerable and still developing their sense of self.

You might be surprised to know who has been intentional about limiting their children’s screen time: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other tech moguls — in other words, the people most aware of technology and its impact on our personal lives — famously set clear boundaries around both how much their children used devices.

We can’t (and shouldn’t) put the smartphone genie entirely back in the bottle; rather, we should try to capitalize on maintaining the silver linings of the devices while doing what we can to minimize the harm they cause. And there’s one big step we can take in that regard: Banning them from Anchorage’s K-12 schools.

Some schools have already instituted variations on a no-phone policy during school hours — and teachers say they’re seeing substantial benefits. Students are more socially interactive with one another and less distracted in class. We ought to build on those successes and expand the effort district-wide. As it stands, in schools that haven’t banned phones altogether, administrators have left it to teachers to police phone use among their students. That’s a lazy abdication of responsibility; how much instructional time has been lost as teachers struggle to maintain order and coax a half-dozen inattentive students to remove their AirPods? The school administrators, as well as the district “head shed,” should devise, maintain and enforce a uniform cellphone policy that lets teachers teach and keeps students from being distracted by screens during class.

There are a number of weak excuses to let students keep their phones during school. Some parents are fearful of not being able to contact their children at all times. To them, we ask: How did it work for your parents when you were in school, and how was that not sufficient? Parents can call the office and have a note brought to their child in circumstances where in-school notification is warranted. Some students protest that they need their phones to use as calculators or to research assignments online. To them, we say that calculators still exist and work wonderfully for their intended purpose, as do the Chromebooks that Anchorage secondary students are assigned.

When it comes to smart devices, we still have a fair amount of work to do society-wide in order to wean ourselves from our phone addictions (We would be wise, after all, to model healthy behavior for our children if we want them to establish a healthier relationship with their own devices). We can’t mandate what kids do at all hours. But if we remove smartphones from the equation for the time they’re in school, we give them a fighting chance to be better during non-school hours, too. It’s a service to our teachers, who already have too much to deal with, and to our students too, giving them their best shot at paying attention in class.