By: Michael Achterling(North Dakota Monitor)
A bill prohibiting cellphone use by North Dakota students during the school day failed Friday in the Senate on a 26-19 vote.
House Bill 1160, sponsored by Rep. Jim Jonas. R-West Fargo, would have prohibited student cellphone use from “bell-to-bell,” including class time and unstructured time in between classes for the entire school day. It would cover cellphones, bluetooth-enabled devices, smart watches and other wearable devices capable of voice, text and other data transfers between students.
Students would also have been required to store their devices in a locked box or pouch so they would remain inaccessible in between classes.
Gov. Kelly Armstrong advocated for the elimination of student cellphone use during the school day during the committee hearing. He argued getting rid of the devices would improve students’ mental health and academic performance.
Sen. Mike Wobbema, R-Valley City, supported the bill on the floor. He said school districts that have implemented a school day ban on phone use reported increased social interaction, more participation in club activities, improvement in academic performance and the return of conversational noise in the hallways.
“It is past time that we throw our young students a lifeline and put in place the tools to rescue them from the addiction of social media and other screen applications,” Wobbema said.
Sen. Paul Thomas, R-Velva, who voted against the bill, said school districts can already implement bans on phone use during the school day.
“We have communities that don’t allow cellphones in their schools and it’s working quite well,” Thomas said. “My concern here is, if I was a school board member, I would vote for this. As a legislator, I don’t think it’s our role to tell the school boards what to do.”
Senate Bill 2354 included the same language as the bill that failed in the Senate. But Rep. Dori Hauck, R-Hebron, a member of the House Education Committee, said the committee amended that version to include more flexibility for school boards.
The amended Senate bill would allow students to use their phones on field trips and only require them to be stowed away during instructional time, not stored in a lock box or pouch during the school day. She said the bill would also give school boards the power to limit or allow student phone use outside of instructional time, such as in between classes or over lunch.
“It gives the school districts a little bit more flexibility on what they can and can’t do and they get to make the choice, rather than us making the choice for them,” Hauck said.
The House is expected to vote on that bill on Monday.
One of the younger members of the Legislature, 26-year-old Sen. Claire Cory, R-Grand Forks, said she was able to use a cellphone with no restrictions while she was in high school. She voted against the measure because she believes the issue was best left up to local school boards.
“It’s not up to the state to control the local policies so I’d hope the school boards would come in with their individual policies on what works best for their schools,” Cory said.
