Legislation has been introduced in the Mississippi House of Representatives to restrict the use of cell phones in public school classrooms.
House Bill 570, authored by DeSoto County Republican Kimberly Remak, requires local school boards to establish “age- and developmentally-appropriate” policies and to mandate “cell phone-free education from bell-to-bell,” meaning devices would be restricted from the time the first class begins to when pupils are dismissed to return home. Once these policies are developed at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, the individual education centers would be tasked with adhering to them.
With the new rule, however, comes the stipulation that schools would not be able to suspend or expel a pupil for violating the policy. Schools would also have to make an exception for pupils needing a phone for medical purposes, while also instituting a framework for off-campus and after-school events on campus.
State Health Officer Dr. Dan Edney, who served on a legislative task force looking into mental health solutions for grade-school pupils, believes that restricting screen time would yield positive results. He had previously recommended that the legislature adopt a policy reducing cell phone usage in schools.
“We have to mitigate the amount of time our children are spending on social media,” Edney said. “Cell phones are dominating their lives, and it’s contributing, in an adverse way, to the mental health issues of our children. It also makes them more sedentary.”
HB 570 has been referred to the Education Accountability and Transparency committees, where it awaits consideration. If passed as-is in both chambers of the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tate Reeves, the bill would go into effect on July 1.
