No phones, no problem: Utah’s youngest kids say state cellphone ban is a social ‘equalizer’

Sixth grader Charlotte Bolke welcomed the breakup of what she called “the cellphone group” at school this year.

“[They were always] videoing each other doing TikTok dances, or watching TikTok, or even texting while standing right next to each other,” said the 11-year-old, who attends Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School in St. George, part of the Washington County School District.

Under a new state law that bans cellphones in classrooms but leaves the particulars up to districts, Charlotte’s district decided to ban cellphones all day for grades K-9, starting from the first bell until dismissal, effectively ending her classmates’ “cellphone group.”

“I think little kids should not be having cellphones,” Charlotte said. She appreciates the new rules, she added, since she’s not yet allowed to have her own.

For younger students, the divide between those who have cellphones and those who don’t is more apparent, parents and teachers told The Salt Lake Tribune. By high school, many kids are allowed to have phones, but the discretion varies more for elementary and middle schoolers.

It’s part of the reason why parents have overwhelmingly said they support the new all-day cellphone bans passed in several Utah school districts over the summer.

“It’s an equalizer,” said Darcie Morris, whose 8-year-old daughter attends Odyssey Charter School. The K-6 public school last month passed a new policy that requires students to keep personal devices in their backpacks during the day, officials said.

“Everybody’s the same,” Morris said. “Nobody can have a phone. Nobody’s going to have them out.”

Phone bans make school ‘less embarrassing’

At minimum, Utah’s cellphone ban law (SB178) doesn’t let students use their phones during class hours, but it still allows them at lunch, recess and between periods. The law also makes exceptions for emergencies, students with disabilities and for addressing “medical necessities.”

But many districts, like Canyons School District in Salt Lake County’s Sandy area, decided to take that further, imposing all-day bans for elementary and middle schoolers (though middle schoolers there can still use them at lunch).

Brittney Grell, who has children at Sandy Elementary and Mount Jordan Middle School in the district, feels the ban minimizes distractions for students and eases the burden on teachers who would otherwise spend time device-policing during class.

Mount Jordan — where Grell’s 12-year-old daughter, Lucy, attends — went even further than the district. There, all electronic devices (including earbuds and watches) are banned throughout the school day, according to the school’s website.

But for Lucy, who received her first phone just before the school year began on Aug. 18, the change was a welcome one.

“It’ll be kind of nice,” she said, referring to not having classmates constantly on their devices throughout the day.

Until now, she said, she was one of the only students in her classes without a phone.

Grell had been against giving Lucy a phone, but she eventually decided the timing was right.

“I think all children benefit at this age from having a social connection,” she said, noting how easy it is for kids to feel excluded when they don’t have what their peers do.

Cami Heaton, a parent of three kids in the Alpine School District, made the same observation. Alpine this year adopted a ban similar to Canyons.

Heaton’s youngest and middle child both attend Title I schools, meaning there’s a higher percentage of low-income students. The cellphone bans relieve the pressure of kids feeling like they need to have a phone to be included, she said.

“It was frustrating when teachers would ask the kids to get out a smartphone and scan a QR code, or do an activity,” Heaton said. “They would limit the students’ ability to participate if they [can’t] afford a phone.”

Personally, Heaton said, she hasn’t decided to give her two youngest kids smartphones yet, but the ban already caused one unexpected outcome: Her seventh grader suddenly stopped pleading for a phone.

“Just the priority of having one seems to have decreased for her,” she said.

Jake Andrews, who attends Lehi Junior High, a school that’s also in the Alpine district, said the ban feels “less embarrassing” for kids who don’t have phones.

“I don’t have a phone, so I don’t really care, honestly,” the 12-year-old said. “I haven’t seen much people that are mad about it.”

Ban means more crucial ‘face-to-face’ time

There’s only so many kids who can huddle around a small phone screen at once, Dr. Kristen Francis pointed out. Francis specializes in inpatient child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Mental Health Institute.

That kind of activity — sitting together and scrolling through videos — is what Francis called “passive interaction.”

Kids may feel like they’re connecting, but “passive interactions” are actually detrimental to their social development, she said, explaining that they’re not paying attention to their friends’ facial expressions or social cues.

“Not having [devices] at school leaves kids time to be face-to-face, and that is what I notice more than anything,” Francis said.

Learning to read facial expressions and social cues is especially important in elementary school, or the “latency” age, Francis said, when kids are learning “the basic rules for how to treat people, how to function in society.”

Those lessons require playtime and direct interaction with their peers.

“They’re learning how to be friends and how to not exclude people,” Francis said. “Those things require a lot of face-to-face interaction.”

Removing cellphones from schools forces kids to play and create real connections with each other, which naturally helps children feel included and “less alone,” she said.

“We are social creatures,” Francis said. “We need each other. ... You can’t really replicate that from a device.”

Stricter bans best for younger kids, teachers agree

In central Salt Lake County, Granite School District decided to ban cellphones in elementary and middle schools ahead of the 2024-25 school year — well before the state law passed in March and went into effect in July.

So far, teachers’ opinions tend to differ depending on the grade-level they teach, said Michele Jones, president of the Granite Education Association.

“I think at the elementary level, it’s pretty universal that people support the no-cellphone rule,” Jones said. “They are little. Most elementary school kids don’t have a cellphone yet, especially in our lower-income communities. But even in the more affluent communities, most kids don’t get a cellphone until junior high.”

She said it’s around those grade levels where educators start to disagree about bell-to-bell bans.

“There is a feeling that, at that point, students are able to self-regulate and understand when it is the appropriate and the inappropriate time to have a cellphone,” Jones said.

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