With the passing of The social media measure (HB379) cell phones are now banned in Florida classrooms, causing students and teachers to express a variety of thoughts and feelings.
“For most students, including myself, this is really annoying that all of a sudden, our phones are taken away. For most people my age we grew up with our phones always being there and now they’re gone. Everyone I know uses their phones every day and for more than just texting or social media so that makes it really irritating,” sophomore Kamil Hernandez said.
While some students find this law to be annoying or unfair, other students see this law as helpful and believe that it serves a reasonable purpose.
“I think that it can help minimize the amount of distractions that we have in class and make it so that more people are focused on what’s going on in the room,” sophomore Isabela Mezzarabo said.
Just like students, many teachers have differing opinions about this law and the necessity of it. Some, like middle school art teacher Mrs. Murphy, do not believe that students need to have their phones during class time.
“I don’t think students need to use them really. If you have a kid that needs to get ahold of the parent, I can send them down to the office and they can use the phone in there or their own because they’re in the office, but besides that, what is a situation where they really need to use their phones,” Murphy said.
Many students like Mezzaroba are concerned that the more rules that are given to the student body the more likely the students are to rebel against these rules.
“With people that are our age, right now we don’t want a bunch of rules controlling us, like this new law. These rules being too harsh could end up with kids just acting out even more than they would on a regular basis,” Mezzaroba said.
Other students like sophomore Landyn Rayan believe that the consequences of The social media measure are too severe and should not be as harsh as they are.
“I think that it’s crazy that the rules are so harsh. You can’t even check the time without getting a detention or at least a threat of one and that to me is a little bit too extreme and I don’t think it should be that harsh,” Rayan said.
Some students, like sophomore Camila Blanco believe that by not having her phone on her at all times she has been able to pay attention in class more than she has in previous school years.
“I definitely pay more attention in class this year than I have before. I’ve also noticed my grades are already better than they usually are. When teachers are explaining I feel like I understand it better sense I’m not paying attention to my phone,” Blanco said
However other students like Mezzaroba find that even with this new law she still is finding distractions all around her.
“I can’t even say I have been focusing more though. I don’t think that it was ever my phone that stopped me from focusing in class. Students can distract themselves with a lot of things besides a phone,” Mezzaroba said.
With phones now out of the way some students believe that it can boost low grades and improve test scores.
“I see why it’s important, many students have low grades and test scores because of their phone usage. By taking phones away it makes it so that you have to pay attention in class,” Blanco said.
Some students can see the benefits that come with this law such as better grades and good test scores even if they do not agree with the law itself.
“I think even though most students like me, don’t agree with this law, if we can start to think about it more positively and focus on the improvements and benefits it will get better. If you don’t think about it positively you won’t see those better grades, and you’ll enjoy school less than you already do,” Blanco said.
