I Gave My Daughter a Phone at 8. Schools Still Shouldn’t Allow Them.

Like most teenagers, my daughter triple-checks that she has her phone before she leaves for school each morning. It’s her lifeline to friends and a necessary tool for letting me know when she will be home after cross-country practice or checking the schedule for the public bus that gets to and from school.

Like my other children, I gave my daughter her first phone when she was young. At the age of 8, she started walking to school on her own, and I wanted her to have a phone so she could call me if she got lost or found herself in trouble.

My daughter is now 15, and I don’t regret giving her a phone so early. It helped her gain independence and confidence, and allowed me to guide her through the pitfalls of having a phone while she was still young enough to listen to me and care about what I thought.

Nevertheless, I don’t believe phones have a place in schools. When I heard that our local school district implemented a bell-to-bell ban on phones during the school day, and that my daughter’s charter school had decided to follow suit, I was thrilled. My daughter did not share my enthusiasm, but she was forced to accept the inevitable.

Phones have been an ongoing problem in schools for years

I often felt as though my kids were part of a huge experiment. Teachers, who are best positioned to know if phones help or hurt in the classroom, have been calling for bans on phones in schools for years.

Although research is mixed, some studies show benefits to keeping phones out of schools, including increased focus, stronger social connections, better health, and a safer school environment. Moreover, the observations of teachers and the research showing phone bans work line up with my daughter’s experiences.

My daughter had told me how phones caused problems in school

Before phones were banned in my daughter’s school, she repeatedly told me about kids who used their phones during class when they should be doing schoolwork. The disruptions affected the entire class. She told me that teachers who spotted illicit phone use had to stop teaching to address the issue. Other times, kids using phones in class caused unwanted background noise. Or, the pull of watching a video on a nearby telephone was too strong to resist, my daughter told me.

Phones in school can also be problematic outside class. While some kids understandably need a break, my daughter told me that some kids spent their lunch scrolling instead of socializing or doing something more productive. Without a phone ban in place, these kids weren’t breaking any rules, so there wasn’t much anyone could do. When I was in school, I loved catching up with my friends during breaks, and it makes me sad to think that some kids are choosing TikTok over friends.

Phones in my daughter’s school have been a problem for other reasons. They have been used to record embarrassing incidents that occurred during the school day, which kids then shared with others. I remain grateful that mistakes I made in middle school and high school weren’t recorded, and I think all kids deserve the same chance, especially while at school.

There are some limitations to not allowing phones in classrooms

After a couple of weeks without access to her phone during school, my daughter said that it wasn’t just her social life suffering. In her opinion, it was harder to get schoolwork done, too. My daughter told me that in previous years, she sometimes used her phone for schoolwork, and there wasn’t a good alternative.

Her school-issued computer has strict content controls. In the past, with her teachers’ permission, she could still access relevant YouTube videos or other blocked material on her phone to help with schoolwork. Additionally, during the second week of school, my daughter had to record a video for an assignment. She struggled with the poor quality of her computer’s video compared to her phone’s high-resolution camera and worried her grade would take a hit.

While I appreciate that there may be some kinks to work out as her school transitions to becoming a phone-free environment, I still think banning phones is the right move.

I miss being able to text my daughter during the day

After the phone ban at my daughter’s school went into effect, I realized that it was a change for me as well. I was heartbroken that I couldn’t text my daughter when Taylor and Travis announced their engagement. Then, I was scared when there was a school shooting in Minnesota early in the school year. I realized, with horror, that if there were ever a school shooting at my daughter’s school, I wouldn’t be able to get in touch with her easily or quickly. She wouldn’t be able to text me for advice or reassurance either.

Only time will tell if my daughter’s school and our entire school district will continue with the phone ban, but I think it’s the right move.