Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law on April 30 a policy that prohibits students’ phones while engaging in instructional hours. This fall, Iowa high school students are struggling to adapt to a new normal as they return to the classroom.
The law was intended to improve the retention of material for students and remove distractions from the school environment. While this blanket ban is achieving that goal in the classroom, its ramifications seep into students’ homes. “Once I get home after school and school activities I seem to spend more time on my phone instead of doing homework,” said sophomore Maeli Sanchez Carmona. “I assume that’s because I hadn’t been on it for a while, so I guess it is a double-edged sword.”
Rather than a total phone ban, there are ways the law can be improved to tackle the issue with devices. Modified strategies, such as promoting structured self-regulation with the phones, have proven to be ideal alternatives. The extreme nature of the ban, however, has raised questions as to why other pressing educational matters in Iowa remain to be addressed.
Iowa lawmakers have refused to improve other glaring issues in school, such as shortages of qualified teachers and appropriate security measures. In turn students feel as though their true concerns are being overlooked, especially because these problems have caused massive waves of degeneration in quality for public school education.
It appears as though, instead of working toward improved safety and ample funding, the state has decided to punish students for any inadequacies seen in the school system. “I just feel like there is a lot of unnecessary attention on the whole idea of phones in the classroom. School safety is a real issue, but we are suddenly upset at students for checking their phones?” said senior Isabella Yarbrough. Taking away students’ access to phones does not create a more positive environment, it ignites fear.
Many students use their phones as a connection to the outside world. When this connection is taken away, it directly silences the only emergency alert system left available to them. “During an emergency the first thing I would want to do is grab my phone to call for help. Kids would all rush to grab theirs, and that would cause unnecessary chaos.” Sanchez Carmona commented. Phones should not be viewed as a sole distraction when the device doubles as a lifeline.
Since Iowa lawmakers refuse to confront pressing issues, such as school violence, lack of student resources and poor safety measures, policies like these only prove one thing: the Iowa government does not want to protect their students adequately. Instead, lawmakers want their students and teachers to adhere to control.
