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- The Utah Senate unanimously advanced a bill banning cellphones in K-12 classrooms.
- Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, emphasized the bill aims to reduce distractions and promote learning.
- The bill allows school districts to make exceptions and has bipartisan support.
SALT LAKE CITY — A bill prohibiting cellphone use in K-12 classrooms statewide advanced through the Utah Senate unanimously on Wednesday.
Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, talked about how he, as a kid, was sent to school with a quarter in case he needed to call home. He said he understands the convenience that cellphones add to both students and parents.
But "a few years ago, phones stopped being phones," he said, describing smart devices that now serve as miniature gaming consoles, televisions and portals into never-ending social media feeds for students.
His bill, SB178, creates a statewide policy restricting the use of cellphones and smartwatches during class time but allows school districts to make exceptions or implement tighter restrictions as they see fit. Fillmore said the status quo relies on school districts to implement their own policies for phone use, which many local agencies have already done.
"Local control is so important in education," he said, which is why state policy has been to let districts handle any device restrictions. "But that has led school districts to have to restrict these devices in order to limit the damage. This bill would just flip that dynamic, having the state just set a default of no cellphones in classrooms."
He said his bill is meant to "approach it from a permissive standpoint ... instead of trying to limit the damage, asking and answering the question: How can we integrate technology in our classrooms to help our students and teachers thrive?"
The bill is supported by lawmakers from both parties, as well as many school districts, teachers and students. Anna Sokol, an Alta High School senior, spoke in favor of the bill during a committee hearing last week, referencing the distraction phones can be for students.
"It's the last four years where you legally have to learn anything," she said. "The seven hours a day we have in school should not be a part of the screen time statistics that our generation has."
SB178 now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.
