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Schools Are Locking Students' Phones Away to Help With Concentration (fortune.com)
Students at a California high school are getting less screen time since the school implemented a ban on cellphone use during the school day. From a report: After one teacher at San Lorenzo High School brought pouches, created by the tech start-up Yondr, into her classroom to lock away students' phones, the entire school began using them from the beginning of the school day at 8 a.m. until the end of the day at 3:10 p.m. According to a 2018 study from the Pew Research Center, more than half of teens said they felt loneliness, anxiety, or upset in the absence of a cellphone. The study also found that girls were more likely to feel these sentiments than boys.
"If something feels weird about modern life to young kids who are dealing with a lot of angst and anxiety in general, maybe it has something to do with relating to the world primarily through a screen eight hours a day," Yondr's founder Graham Dugoni told CNBC. Students said they initially felt awkward and annoyed having their phones taken away during the school day, but added that they started to see more teens interacting with each other. One student added that not having a phone in class helped with concentration.
"If something feels weird about modern life to young kids who are dealing with a lot of angst and anxiety in general, maybe it has something to do with relating to the world primarily through a screen eight hours a day," Yondr's founder Graham Dugoni told CNBC. Students said they initially felt awkward and annoyed having their phones taken away during the school day, but added that they started to see more teens interacting with each other. One student added that not having a phone in class helped with concentration.
A magnet school is a high school that has a specialized rather than a generic curriculum. There are public and private magnet schools, designed to attract students with more narrowly defined, specific interests - hence the name "magnet" school.
Of course, there is always the law that says everything on the Internet is suspect.
There's a principle called "in loco parentis" in US law that says, yes, schools do have exactly the right to limit student communications. It's why schools can have things like detention. In most US states, they have rights to do most of what a parent could do (most limits are on physical punishments). The Supreme Court has ruled explicitly on the ability to limit the First Amendment rights of students -- the school has to have strong reason to do so, but it can be done, and speech that disrupts the classroom is acceptable reason.