Governor Mike DeWine voices support for Senate bill banning student cell phone use in schools
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is continuing his crackdown on cell phones in schools.
In a Tuesday morning news conference the Governor voiced his support for Senate Bill 158, which would ban student use of cell phones during school hours if passed.
The goal of the bill is to improve academic performance and reduce what they call 'learning loss,' or students not absorbing information in class due to distractions.
"Just having a phone nearby means students are receiving constant notifications all day long," Governor DeWine said. "Those notifications make it nearly impossible for students to focus."
Another concern the ban hopes to address is the danger of social media use by children.
Less time spent unsupervised online reduces the risk of exposure to damaging or harmful content.
"These phones can be incredibly harmful to students' mental and emotional health. They expose our kids to things like cyberbullying, sextortion - which means these kids are being blackmailed with private, sensitive images, videos, or information. Both of these factors increase the risk of suicide among our children" DeWine said.
State Senator Al Cutrona (R-District 33) echoed DeWine's support of the bill, detailing the degree of distraction that cell phones present to youth.
"I think it's essential that we take care of our children, and that means in the classroom, making sure that they are paying attention on what's going on there, that they're learning," Cutrona tells 21 News.
He added that he would vote for the bill, but wants to extend it to include all devices that are not used as instructional material or a learning aid.
"The one thing that I'd like to see changed, and I'm going to be pushing very much so for, is not just limiting it to just cell phones, but it could be different smart devices like an Apple Watch," he said. "If we're going to take distractions out of the way, we want to make sure we're not limiting it only to just the cell phones."
When reached for comment, State Senator Sandra O'Brien declined a request for interview at this time.
