MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Two separate bills have now passed the Alabama House and Senate that would ban students in public schools from using their cell phones during class.
It’s an effort to limit distractions and internet access during school hours. Both bills reference the FOCUS Act, an acronym for Freeing Our Classrooms of Unnecessary Screens for Safety.
The bills prohibit students from using cell phones at public K-12 schools statewide. According to the bill, prohibiting the use of cell phones is supposed to limit electronic distractions, decrease internet and social media use during school and help protect the safety of students when using electronic communication.
However, students could access their phones under a few exceptions. Those include if they study under an individualized education plan that allows it, if it’s teacher-approved instruction or if it’s for medical purposes.
The bills also said students can use cell phones during an emergency threatening the life or safety of another person. Some say phones don’t belong in the classroom, while others believe they are needed in emergency situations.
“I understand why they want to remove them, but dealing with the current way society is now when you have these violent outbursts and sometimes even worse scenarios happen,” said a man. “Those phones have proven to be efficient because the kid can put it out when no one else can or they can get information out. I do understand why they do it for. It’s because it’s a distraction in the classroom and it kind of slows down academics and things like that because they’re more focused on these games or social media than it is the actual academics in the class.”
“I have mixed emotions,” said a woman. “I see being able to reach your children or they reach you is a positive thing but I’ve heard a lot of other negative things that kids are young and honestly too young to have cell phones these days and they can access a lot of other things that’s a distraction from, you know, their education.”
Both the Mobile County and Baldwin County Public School Systems already have cell phone bans in place and have been actively enforcing those policies. Since both the Senate and the House have passed their own versions of the bill, each version now heads to the opposite chamber for consideration.
To pass, one of the versions would need to be approved by both chambers before it could be sent to Governor Kay Ivey’s desk.
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