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Oregon School Cell Phone Ban: 'Engaged Students, Joyful Teachers' (portlandtribune.com) 65

Posted by BeauHD from the so-far-so-good dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a repot from the Portland Tribune: There was plenty of uncertainty and debate about the effectiveness of a cell phone ban decreed (PDF) by executive order last summer. But at least in Estacada, the policy has earned two thumbs up, including approval from a "grumpy old teacher." Jeff Mellema is a language arts teacher at Estacada High School. He has worked in the building for 24 years, and he said the new policy that prohibits students from using their phones during the day has been a breath of fresh air.

"There is so much better discourse in my classroom, be it personal or academic," Mellema said. "Students can't avoid those conversations anymore with their phones." "This ban has brought joy back to this old, grumpy teacher," he added with a smile. That is the kind of feedback Gov. Tina Kotek was hoping for as she visited Estacada High School on Wednesday afternoon, March 18. Her goal was to visit classrooms, speak with administrators, and meet with students one-on-one to hear about the effectiveness of her phone policy. [...] In the classrooms, she was able to take a straw poll around the cell phone ban and then get specific, direct feedback from the kids. Overall, it was positive.

The Rangers said they noticed changes in how they interact with teachers and peers. They don't feel that "siren's song" tug of their phones as often, and the changes are bleeding into everyday life as well -- think less reminders to put phones away during family dinners. Phones also led to issues around bullying and online toxicity during the school day. There are some hiccups. The students spoke about difficulties in tracking busy schedules. Many athletes relied on their phones for practice times and locations. Some advanced placement kids said the overzealous programs monitoring school laptops blocked access to needed resources for studying/researching schoolwork. There is even a strange quirk with school-provided tech that prevents them from accessing their calculators. "Maybe the filters are too strong right now," Gov. Kotek said. "That is why we are working with the districts to best implement the policy."

The kids also weighed in on the debate around the extent of the ban. The two options bandied in Salem were a "bell-to-bell" policy or just inside classrooms. The latter would allow kids to use their phones during passing period and lunch. Several advocated for that change. That mirrored the debate within the Oregon legislature. It ultimately led to a stalemate and the need for Gov. Kotek's executive ruling. "When you make a decision like this, you don't know how it will ultimately work," Kotek told the students. "I appreciate you adapting to the situation and making it work for you." While things could change in the future, the governor is pleased with the early results. The phone ban is here to stay.
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Oregon School Cell Phone Ban: 'Engaged Students, Joyful Teachers' More

Oregon School Cell Phone Ban: 'Engaged Students, Joyful Teachers'

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  • It's hard for me personally to imagine anyone who believes that kids having ready cell phone access contributes to their educational success, but I'm sure they're out there. And on here!
    • I think that some people believe that any kind of technology will help, in much the same way that tablets, laptops, and computers before them were introduced to early education in the hopes that they would improve outcomes. Even there thereby results have been dubious or generally non-existent. All of those things are merely tools, and while it would benefit someone to learn how to use a computer for a number of jobs, there's little specialized need requiring students to need to learn how to use a smartphon

      • Re:cucking for ChatGPT (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Friday March 20, 2026 @05:16PM (#66051954)
        Here's the thing I can't help but notice and be bothered by - We rolled out tablets and chrome books to schools fast. Huge drive, lots of donations, lots of taxes, lots of computers distributed because, well, of course they will help make kids smarter. Never did anyone stop and say, "hey, this is kind of an experiment. Maybe we shouldn't put everyone in the experimental group all at the same time. Maybe we should try giving kids laptops in just some places and see how it goes for 5-10 years before changing every school?" But of course educators, who include science teachers, are really f-ing bad at experiments. They're really good with fads though.

        Will the drive to undo that mistake go as quickly? I doubt it, but time will tell. Will we remove cell phones from schools as quickly as we replaced the books with cheap computers? Maybe we'll luck out.

        The results of removing cell phones from Jr High here in Georgia has gone so well that they're expanding the law to include High Schools.

        • I agree with your post overall though I imagine someone DID say something but money was just so important. Google and Microsoft "giving" stuff away for free just enabled vendor lock in. Instead of teaching kids about computing, they taught them very specific applications, such MS Office.

          I'm glad to see this ban is working out. I think it's a great idea.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by ubungy ( 1471733 )
          I am a chemist who was looking to get into education around 2017 +/- a bit. I enrolled into a local universities education program, tested almost perfect in my content area, and had the department head and several others excited to bring me into the fold. Two things turned me off. One, and I'm paraphrasing, but sent the biggest red flags ever was something like; an eskimo, an african american, and a white student.... cut. I'm done. The other was in a lecture being told that 'studies show' technology in

        • We had great success with putting computers in schools. They were part of numerous successful educational efforts. This time we ignored all of the things that would make them successful. Putting lots of computers into schools was not the problem, it's an opportunity. Failing to spend the money on writing educational software to use on those computers and expecting teachers to figure out how to use them to help education is where it went wrong. We needed a MECC for the new millenium and instead we got only t

  • Are the lawmakers and rule makers for the schools NOT old enough to remember BEFORE cell phones when we went to school....?

    Can they not remember that we did JUST FINE without a fscking smart phone in our faces 24/7...?

    This may just be mind blowing, but we didn't have ANY phones at all except pay phones or what was hard wired landline at homes....

    And amazingly enough, we grew up just fine..actually now how to meet and talk to each other in person, etc....

    Of course this was also before social media....but

    • My high school had a smoking area -although it was restricted to Seniors only. And you could leave for lunch and go downtown to the shops. And there was a student parking lot. Hell, when I was in grade school, the local high school had both a pistol and rifle range...

      Pepperidge Farm Remembers!

      • That's exactly like my HS (graduated in 95).
      • When my wife was in school, the student parking lot was filled with pickups, which were themselves filled with gun racks, which were filled with... can you guess?

        No shootings occurred.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by quenda ( 644621 )

        And there was a student parking lot.

        I assumed all American high schools had student parking.
        How else are the kids going to get to school? Walking or public transport ? hahaha!

        Oh yeah, those weird buses painted yellow, with the engine sticking out the front, like on a car. So the kids don't have to mix with public transport like in any other country.

        • My son's highschool did not have a student parking lot. The assumption has become that parents would deliver and pick up their children.

          Can't leave them unsupervised! (and... many younglings just don't drive. I was surprised at how few of his schoolmates had drivers licenses by the time they graduated.)

    • Re:Are they not old enough to remember...? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Friday March 20, 2026 @03:25PM (#66051776) Journal
      We grew up better without them, and some of the kids recognize that (here in Europe we've had similar experimental bans as well). When asked, one notable point some kids made was that they felt more carefree, secure in knowing that an embarrassing misstep or misspoken word is not going to be filmed to haunt you for the rest of the year.

    • Re:Are they not old enough to remember...? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by sabbede ( 2678435 ) on Friday March 20, 2026 @04:25PM (#66051864)
      Yeah, the idea that my parents would ever need to interrupt a class to contact me directly would have been dismissed out of hand by everyone involved when I was in school. It isn't necessary. That's why the school has its own phones - parents call the school, not the student. There's nothing so urgent that the child has to be called directly. Examples of things I was notified of in class include my mom setting the backyard on fire and my grandmother dying. Calling me directly about either would not have helped.

      And kids simply can't be trusted to only have their phone for contacting their parents under whatever incredibly unlikely scenario anyone wants to imagine.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      While that's true, a responsible generation aims to boost the next generation to a *higher* level than the education they received. The world has become more complex and faster-paced, and even if that weren't true, the consequenes of aiming high and falling short are better than the consequences of aiming for the status quo and falling short.

      So while I'm 100% onboard with skepticism that technology will magically make education better, I think the argument that "the education I got worked for me should be

  • That's awesome should have been done sooner.

  • This is UNAMERICAN - how are our home-grown tech companies supposed to monetise the lives of the students if they're offline?

    * Think of the shareholders! *

    • Remember the good ol' days, when you could watch online porn in class?

    • You do make a valid point. At least from the position of business, which in America, is the only position we recognize anyway.

  • If grades improve. Just because the old guy is happy doesn't mean you'll get better outcomes.

    • I don't know. If the teacher is less stressed out, then they will likely do a better job teaching. Therefore, I would imagine that yes, having happier teachers will lead to better overall outcomes for students.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Keeping "old guys" happy should be high on your priority list.

      Now get off my lawn!

    • Re:easy thing to measure (Score:4, Interesting)

      by stabiesoft ( 733417 ) on Saturday March 21, 2026 @09:40AM (#66053056) Homepage
      Here is a study of Florida's ban. https://www.nber.org/system/fi... [nber.org]

      My general read of it is, first year is small improvement in test scores, but elevated suspensions. 2nd year suspensions fell back to what they were pre-ban, and scored ticked up a point to a point and half. Not bad for two years. I imagine over time, scores may come up a bit more. I think it said that unexcused absences decreased some too, not sure what caused that.

    • So you don't see a correlation between a classroom that is paying attention to a happier teacher, and overall improvement in grades?

      If all you're looking at is the grade, then maybe you would be happy with an indifferent teacher that just gives everyone good grades regardless of actual performance?

      The real goal is to have informed students capable of critical thinking skills. The grade is just a metric, and metrics can be flawed.

      Think of this as "behavior driven development" instead of "metric driven devel

  • Long overdue, but better late than never :)

    I still remember how bizarre it was, for society to go so quickly from "the family computer should be in plain view in the living room, duh" to "oh sure, every kid should have a pocket internet connected computer with camera and microphone, why not!"

  • But what can the do about it other than suck it up.

    • Well, apparently they can read the article summary, which is beyond your capability:

      That is the kind of feedback Gov. Tina Kotek was hoping for as she visited Estacada High School on Wednesday afternoon, March 18. Her goal was to visit classrooms, speak with administrators, and meet with students one-on-one to hear about the effectiveness of her phone policy. [...] In the classrooms, she was able to take a straw poll around the cell phone ban and then get specific, direct feedback from the kids. Overall, it was positive.

      The kids also weighed in on the debate around the extent of the ban. The two options bandied in Salem were a "bell-to-bell" policy or just inside classrooms. The latter would allow kids to use their phones during passing period and lunch. Several advocated for that change. That mirrored the debate within the Oregon legislature. It ultimately led to a stalemate and the need for Gov. Kotek's executive ruling. "When you make a decision like this, you don't know how it will ultimately work," Kotek told the students. "I appreciate you adapting to the situation and making it work for you." While things could change in the future, the governor is pleased with the early results. The phone ban is here to stay.

  • Being socially awkward is a big part of growing up. Unfortunately, today the moment a kid today feels the least bit awkward they pull out their phone and avoid it. Starting real life conversations is seen by the current generation as "intruding". The result is kids are about 5 years behind in social development. The societal and personal costs of this are enormous. Young men that were starting to date at 20 and get married at 25 are now starting to date at 25 and get married at 30. The window for having he

  • results after two year ban (Score:3)

    by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Saturday March 21, 2026 @03:09AM (#66052732)
    Belgium here, high school teacher... Our school banned smartphones two years ago. 12 to 15 year olds have to hand them in. The older ones have to put them somewhere where it is out of hand's reach. Parents rejoiced, kids were disappointed. Now it is routine. Colleagues teaching the young ones say the focus is a lot better. In the higher grades, where I teach, I notice little difference. I have to add though that students in our school are generally... more well behaved than in average schools.
    Government mandated a phone ban last year. A (reliable) newspaper reported that screentime remained the same. Meaning that kids use their phones more at home now.
    Personally I have mixed feelings about this. I am pro the ban. Especially for young kids. I see smartphone zombies at every bus stop that I pass by car every morning. It is a sad view. Then again, us adults have little credibility there. We are not giving a good example. My son was at a music camp. I went to get him. Most parents were clinging to their smartphones while waiting for the kids to come out. If we make rules for the kids, we should also make rules for parents.
    In short, smartphone ban has some advantages. It is not a miracle solution though. It is easy to bash kids. Lead by example...
    • I see this here too. I walk my dog daily and almost all adults, even those with dogs that should be paying attention, are glued to their phone. I think the biggest loss that cell phones have made is people do not spend those moments alone in thought, they spend it watching cat videos. Humans seem to have lost the ability to entertain themselves without external stimulus.

  • "Enraged Students".

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