Pennsylvania lawmaker proposes students have cell phones locked away in school

LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) – Cell phones in schools are typically not allowed, but students are still using them. Pennsylvania State Senator Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster) is hoping to limit student phone usage in the classroom.

“It’s led to a rewiring of the brain among adolescents in a really troubling way,” Aument said.

His solution is to have schools try out a pilot program.

“It’s not a requirement, but schools could participate and they would be eligible to receive grant funding for cell phone lockers,” he said. “The phones would be locked up during school hours.”

It wouldn’t be in the students’ lockers. They would be put into a different area where the phones aren’t reachable to students.

Aument referenced poor mental health as a result of kids using cell phones.

“Between about 2010 and 2013, it’s directly related to more and more students having direct access to smartphones and to social media,” Aument said.

His proposed legislation includes statistics on teen depression rates going up 150%.

He says in 2012 math and reading scores dropped for the first time in 25 years in Pennsylvania.

Kaili Linask, a freshman at Franklin and Marshall College, experienced situations in high school where her phone could’ve helped her communicate with family.

“There was a gas leak and everybody’s phones were in their lockers and nobody could communicate with anybody,” Linask said.

That led to worried parents and students not having their phones for another two days while the school was shut down.

Linask’s school also had a lockdown scare.

“We had a new teacher who didn’t realize a resource officer was a resource officer and he was supposed to have a gun at my school,” she said “They called the lockdown and everybody’s freaking out, texting their parents, telling them, ‘I don’t know what’s happening right now, but it’s bad.'”

According to Aument, between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of U.S. teens with a smartphone went from 23% to 73%.

Aument is hopeful to finish the language of the legislation soon. Once that happens, he hopes to bring in professionals to discuss data with members of the Senate.

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