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Speaker 1: So lawmakers are continuing testimony at the state House on

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Speaker 1: the bill that would ban kids from using cell phones

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Speaker 1: in schools altogether if it becomes law. So under this proposal,

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Speaker 1: students would either leave phones at home or have to

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Speaker 1: put them in secure storage until the school day ends.

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Speaker 2: I've got mixed feelings about this because, on the one hand,

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Speaker 2: there is a broad variety of ways in which cellular

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Speaker 2: devices can be misused by the utes in the classrooms. However,

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Speaker 2: we also live in a crazy world full of child kidnappers,

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Speaker 2: full of school shooters, full of people with ill intent,

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Speaker 2: and there is a lot of value with parents being

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Speaker 2: able to communicate with their children in crisis, and that

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Speaker 2: cell phone is your lifeline between the parent and the child.

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Speaker 2: How you strike a balance between these things is a

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Speaker 2: tricky question to navigate, and also one that begs the

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Speaker 2: question whether the state should even be involved or is

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Speaker 2: this strictly an issue for parents and schools to deal with.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you've got supporters who are saying that the

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Speaker 1: unrestricted phone use distract students, harms learning, and that there

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Speaker 1: need to be clear boundaries for students. They argue it

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Speaker 1: would improve education without costing the state money However, opponents

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Speaker 1: are arguing that schools should just enforce the existing rules

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Speaker 1: and that lawmakers should not micro manage districts. Now, when

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Speaker 1: I was growing up, you had tornado drills where you'd

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Speaker 1: line up in the hallway. Now the drills are active

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Speaker 1: shooter drills. And are you telling me that there's going

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Speaker 1: to be a law that prohibits me from communicating with

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Speaker 1: my child while they're in school? No? Thanks, Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: believe that this goes back to the home and parents

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Speaker 1: needing to teach their children respect and the reason they're

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Speaker 1: at the school, and that is to learn and get

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Speaker 1: a good education. If that is implemented at home, there

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Speaker 1: should be no worries about what goes on in the school.

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Speaker 1: It's so it feels nanny state to me. Don't tell

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Speaker 1: me I can't talk to my child when they're at school,

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Speaker 1: and the need arise.

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Speaker 2: And that is the central issue, because you are taking

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Speaker 2: away that lifeline of communication between parents and their children.

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Speaker 2: But on the other hand, I mean, look at the

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Speaker 2: way look at the way that adults you lose productivity

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Speaker 2: by frittering away their hours on these stupid smartphone devices.

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Speaker 2: And we're all the time checking our social media now

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Speaker 2: and you got videos, and even worse now you have

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Speaker 2: reels and little clips, vine snippets of content, short form

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Speaker 2: content that you just doom scroll through endlessly, and it

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Speaker 2: ends up eating a huge amount of time away and

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Speaker 2: productivity way from functioning rational adults. If you put these

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Speaker 2: devices in the hand of children who inherently do not

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Speaker 2: have as well developed of a judgment center, think about

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Speaker 2: the way, let's sup control less self control, and you're

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Speaker 2: giving it to them. In a classroom environment, the teachers

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Speaker 2: have less ability to parents and discipline the children. You know.

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Speaker 2: Ever before you've taken away a huge amount of classroom

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Speaker 2: control for them, and then on top of it, you're

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Speaker 2: giving these kids access to cell phones. So mixed feelings.

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Speaker 2: But smaller government is usually a better government, So ultimately

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Speaker 2: leaving that responsibility in the hands of parents probably the

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Speaker 2: better way to go. But I understand the reasoning behind

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Speaker 2: the bill, the bad position that the educators are in.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so you've got Democrats, state Rep. Tanya Faft.

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Speaker 1: She's in favor of SB seventy eight, which is the

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Speaker 1: Wireless Communication Device Policy.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, miss chair. I also think one thing we

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Speaker 3: haven't talked about is the fact that if we pass

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Speaker 3: this built everyone's on the same page. Employers aren't texting

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Speaker 3: their kids, their workers during the day, parents aren't texting

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Speaker 3: their kids during the day. Teachers know that we don't

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Speaker 3: have to fight that fight every single period. Put your

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Speaker 3: phone away, take your AirPods out. I mean to me,

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Speaker 3: this is a message that says we value education and

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Speaker 3: we need our students to learn. So I just wanted

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Speaker 3: to throw that in and thank you for your testimony.

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Speaker 2: Is that a psa of an endorsement?

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Speaker 3: Is that? What?

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Speaker 1: Sure?

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Speaker 3: I am one hundred percent for this bill, and I

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Speaker 3: would just like to tell you that I had two

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Speaker 3: pages yesterday that were former high school students of mine,

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Speaker 3: their sophomores, and I tell them about this bill and

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Speaker 3: they are completely against it, which means we should pass this.

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Speaker 1: So, yes, value education, But when have bands ever worked.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that going to make the kids just go towards

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Speaker 1: the phone even more?

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Speaker 2: Oh, Valbellion, Yeah, much the same way that the war

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Speaker 2: on drugs is completely backfired. The war on phones just

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Speaker 2: send them in the arms of technology even further. Because

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Speaker 2: you tell kids not to do something, that's the first

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Speaker 2: thing they do. That's also just human nature.