A group of parents of children enrolled in Seattle Public Schools has started a petition calling on administrators to take action to restrict the use of smartphones by students during school time.
The petition, addressed to members of the SPS board, expresses concerns about the harmful effects of smartphones on kids’ mental health, learning distractions caused by the devices in classrooms, and isolation from “real human interaction.”
The call for a district-wide solution comes after two Seattle middle schools — Hamilton International and Robert Eagle Staff — made moves to ban cellphones when school restarts in the fall.
Those schools will be requiring students to lock phones and smartwatches in special pouches at the beginning of the school day, before retrieving them at the end of the day with the use of an unlocking device. The pouches are made by a company called Yondr, at a cost of $30 per student. According to The Seattle Times, the Hamilton PTSA is covering the cost, at a discounted rate, and Eagle Staff will use funds from the PTSA, along with donations from a campaign to pay for the pouches.
“Today’s smartphones are filled with addictive apps designed by sophisticated firms that constantly stimulate kids’ dopamine levels, making them hard to put down,” the new petition states, citing U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s call for a warning label on social media platforms.
The parents are calling for SPS to have measures in place by this fall, leveraging what they call “successful pilot efforts already underway by teachers in SPS classrooms,” including a “Phone Hotel” experiment at Garfield High School, where students “check in” their phones before class starts.
A smartphone ban across the district in Seattle would not be a first in the U.S. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted to ban student smartphone use on campuses during school hours. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he wants to apply the same restrictions in schools across the state.
Florida and Indiana passed laws to ban phones in schools and several other states are considering such a measure.
The New York Times reported this month that while taking such action is creating buzz in schools and districts across the country, a ban can be tough to enforce because “phones have become so embedded into daily life.”
