BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – The Broward County School Board on Tuesday voted to restrict cellphone usage for students on campus from beginning bell to end bell, beginning for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year.
The decision was unanimous.
For the previous school year, students were ordered to have their phones silenced or turned off while in class.
Under the updated policy, students will not be able to use their cellphones even during “free time,” like at lunch.
In an email to Local 10 News Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the district confirmed that instead of phones being placed on silent, they must now be placed on airplane mode until closing bell. This also applies to smartwatches and tablets.
“You may not use the cellphone during the school day -- it is that simple,” school board member Allen Zeman said.
One parent who voiced her opinion about the ban ahead of the vote told board members that she’s previously told her children that cellphones weren’t around when she was in school and “nobody died,” but “there are some things to be embraced by it.”
“Frequently, after-school clubs are canceled on the day and they’re only communicated to the kids by the teacher or they go on Canvas and see it’s canceled,” she said. “After school activities might come up like, ‘Hey, mom. I’m going to be home late because I’m staying for a JROTC activity I didn’t know about or that they’ve just come up with. Those kind of scenarios are the things that students do legitimately communicate about at lunchtime.”
The mother said a full-on cellphone ban didn’t seem reasonable since it’s not likely that students would be using their phones to just socialize at lunch or in between classes where time is very limited.
“I think there’s a view that it’s going to suddenly create students who are going to go off and do social things together at lunchtime,” she said. “There isn’t time anyway. They have 36 minutes to get from where they are to the cafeteria, wolf down some food and get back out again.”
One student also took to the podium, releasing details about a survey given to Broward students which showed 98% opposed a full cellphone ban, but were willing to compromise on when cellphones are permitted to be used.
He read multiple statements from fellow students, including one who said, “If for whatever reason there is a situation inside school and there is no one around, a cellphone could quite literally save someone’s life. For example, in the morning or when students are there after school.”
The student said he also believed teachers should be the ones deciding if cellphones could be taken out at certain times in their classrooms.
School board member Debbi Hixon said under the change, teachers will still be permitted to allow students to use their digital devices if they are being used for instructional purposes.
“Most classrooms have computer devices, so Canvas and all of those things they would be able to do on the laptops,” she explained. “But Class Dojo, Kahoot -- any of those -- it really is up to the discretion of the teacher. If the teacher finds the need for them to be using the cellphone then they could use it.”
The expansion to the cellphone ban, however, will soon be in effect and the superintendent will be speaking to principals ahead of the school year to determine how exactly the ban will be implemented and enforced.
Many Local 10 viewers took to social media to express their opinions on the issue.
“We have school shootings. We need them to call 911. Unfortunately necessary in this world,” one user wrote on Local 10′s Facebook page.
“As long as any kid can use their cell in the case of an emergency it’s okay with me. My wife had a student at MSD that called her in fear from the school during that horrible shooting,” another person wrote.
Those concerns resonated with Hixon, who lost her husband Chris in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
“I know it is important when there is an emergency or something is going on to be able to connect your loved one because on Feb. 14th, I called Chris’ phone and when he didn’t answer immediately, knowing what was going on, I knew right away that something was wrong, because he would have at least answered the phone to say, ‘I can’t talk to you right now,’” she said. “But he would have known how anxious I was and he would have wanted me to hear his voice, and when that didn’t happen, I just knew. And when I called back, someone else answered his phone to tell me that he had been shot.”
Hixon stressed that cellphones are not banned from campus and that airplane mode can be toggled right back into use in case of an emergency.
Following the vote, school board member Brenda Fam called for her colleagues to reconsider.
“Town halls should always be held on issues that have a major impact on the community. I concur with the parents (who) have reached out to me; this process was handled poorly,” Fam said in a statement. “I will be requesting this matter come back to the Board for a revote on Tuesday.”
View the full Broward County School Board meeting by clicking here.
In Miami-Dade County, while a cellphone ban is not on the agenda for the school board’s meeting Wednesday, they passed reviews for safety and security procedures, protocols, trainings and public information campaigns and the effects of screen time.