ATLANTA (Georgia Recorder) — Your kids’ TikTok, Fortnite and SnapChat usage could be about to plummet – a bill banning personal devices like cell phones is on the way to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk after it passed the Senate nearly unanimously Tuesday.
Some individual districts already have bans in place, but the bill would apply to all kids through middle school and be in effect from the first morning bell to the dismissal bell starting next July.
“Schools that have done it have literally been transformed,” said the bill’s author, Peachtree Corners Republican Rep. Scott Hilton, after the Senate vote. “We’ve heard some of that in the testimony on the floor that the lunchrooms now, kids are talking, they’re interacting, they’re socializing. So this isn’t just an academic bill, this is a mental health bill, it’s a public safety bill.”
The bill does not specify how schools should ban devices. Some schools have kids put their devices in a locked box or a bag that hangs on the back of the classroom door, others use special locking pouches that the students carry around but that can only be unlocked by the teacher.
Only two senators voted against the bill, Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming and Sen. Colton Moore of Trenton, but some Democrats expressed agita at the legislation. Duluth Democrat Nabilah Islam Parkes proposed an amendment that would exempt e-readers like Amazon Kindles from the ban.
As passed, the bill would ban any “personal electronic device,” but still allow for school-owned devices with the teacher’s approval.
“Kids aren’t just reading paperbacks anymore, they’re reading on Kindles, on Nooks, on tools that are built specifically for learning,” Islam Parkes said. “E-readers don’t have TikTok, you don’t text on them, they don’t let you scroll. I agree with banning distractions, not learning.”
Sen. RaShaun Kemp, an Atlanta Democrat who was formerly a teacher and principal, said he was torn on the bill because he has seen the ways cell phones can contribute to bullying, but he said phones can also be a lifeline in emergencies.
“We’ve already seen this happen, not just here in Georgia, but across the country. Time and time again, when a crazed gunman decided to take the lives of our children while they sat in their desks, it was the calls of students that got emergency services there, it was their text to their parents letting them know they were alive that gave every parent a glimmer of hope,” he said.
“While I support this bill – I actually think it should go up to 12th grade – I implore, I beg my colleagues, for the sake of our children and educators to do something about guns,” he added. “Do something so that we no longer put ourselves in this position where we make sound policy decisions but neglect what our students are really asking for, to be safe in their classrooms.”
Sen. Jason Anavitarte, the Dallas Republican who carried the bill in the Senate, said emergency situations require calm and structure.
“My advice during an emergency at a school, while we know that parents are scared, parents are worried about where their kids are, parents are worried about what’s happening at a moment’s notice – trusting law enforcement, trusting the first responders and following the instructions when emergency text messages, alerts or other things are put out by an individual school or school district I think are important, and this bill does not infringe on any of those communication methods that school districts use now or would develop or use in the future.”
Speaking to reporters after the Senate vote, Hilton indicated that high schoolers’ days of texting in class may be numbered with an expansion to the bill possible as soon as next year’s session.
“Based on the feedback that I’ve got, we do have a problem in 9 through 12, and it’s the nuance of how do we address that, but I do imagine in a future session, we’re going back to think deeply about what we do in high school,” he said.
