Mitch Barnhart’s goal is to put rings on fingers and diplomas in hands. Around the state of Kentucky, schools took cell phones out of students’ hands and replaced them with library books.
House Bill 208 went into effect this summer, requiring phones to be kept off and out of sight during a school day. Kentucky is one of 35 states that restricts or bans cell phone usage during school. Discretion was left open-ended for school districts to determine how to enforce the new policy. In Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), some tell the students to keep it in their lockers during the day, while other schools purchased lock pouches, like the kinds used to comedy shows, to prevent students from using their devices.
Students weren’t necessarily eager to embrace the changes. Some parents worried that it could take away a form of communication with their child in case of an emergency. Schools reassured that centralized communication from the school would suffice. Still, there was some anxiety around the question, “Would this work?”…