NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Most public school students have been back in the classroom for about two weeks now, so we wanted to check and see how the statewide ban on phone use is going. WSMV4’s Courtney Allen learned some students have already found a way around it.
Ahead of the statewide ban of phone use in classrooms that went into effect this school year, parents told us they thought it could be beneficial.
“I like where they are going to get kids focused on learning,” one parent said.
Some recent high school graduates said the reality is different.
“Everyone I know that is still in high school, they just have a second phone they give to teachers or show to teachers,” Malik Jackson said. “My little brother is currently in high school. He has two phones.”
Jackson, who graduated in 2024, said that is what he did when he went to East Nashville High School.
“We usually just used a burner phone and put that in the Yondr pouch [pouch schools use to lock away phones during class] and had our own actual phone that we used,” Jackson said.
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We asked Metro Nashville Public Schools if the district is aware of students using burners to get around the cell phone policy. MNPS said they don’t have data specific to the use of second phones, but the district did tell us that so far this year, they have had 100 personal device incidents involving 118 students. It is a drop from this time last year in when there were 126 incidents involving 143 students.
“There’s no way to tell from the data,“ MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted said. ”It may be in part due to the heightened attention on the prohibition of cell phone usage in the classroom.”
Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, on the other hand, told us the number of incidents this year so far is more than double the amount last year. CMCSS said it expected the uptick since the district expanded its policy this year to not only ban cell phones during class, but also in hallways during transitions.
“I would say that cell phones do have a negative effect on kids’ attention spans,” Jackson said.
Districts hope the new policy will keep students’ attention on instruction.
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