Nobody is exactly saying a cell phone in school is as dangerous as a six-shooter in an Old West saloon but many states, including Iowa are considering impounding students’ phones while they’re in school. Some schools now lock up student cell phones in magnetic “Yondr pouches” that can only be unlocked at the end of the day.
In Tombstone, Arizona, 1881, Marshall Virgil Earp was only trying to keep the peace. To help him do that, guns were banned within the city limit. But not everybody was happy to go along with this. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne declined to challenge the ordinance, but Ike’s brother, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers confronted Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday on Fremont Street. Upon reflection, if they had formally lodged their complaint at a city council meeting, instead of staging a shootout, it might have delayed their untimely residency on Boot Hill.
Ironically, according to Adam Winkler, American constitutional scholar at UCLA, “Tombstone had much more restrictive laws on carrying guns in public in the 1880’s than it has today.” He notes that now it’s legal to openly carry firearms in Tombstone without a license or permit.
Curiously, with both guns and cell phones, technology has driven the problem. Nobody ever shot up a saloon with a cumbersome single-shot flintlock rifle. But compact six-shooters made that a lot easier. And now that phones are portable and powerful, the temptation to carry them everywhere is too great to resist. (Okay, I realize the first iPhone was introduced 17 years ago. But at my age, it seems like only yesterday.)
A June 2024 study by Pew Research reports that 72% of high school teachers claim that cell phone use is a “major problem” in school. In Des Moines, Hoover High School has banned cell phones for this academic year. In Iowa City, Tate High School has enacted a “no electronics policy.” More bans in Iowa schools are expected in October.
Teachers and administrators argue that cell phones distract from learning, compromise student privacy, contribute to cheating, cyberbullying and social anxiety. On the other hand, they recognize that cell phones can be critically important for emergency communication, especially with parents. They can help students organize their schedules and a phone’s Internet capabilities are powerful research tools.
Some students might suspect that the sudden urgency for schools to outlaw cell phones is opening the door to a general totalitarian state. In addition to banning phones, Alabama’s Alamance-Burlington Schools had the mirrors removed from the girls’ restrooms because they thought girls took too many restroom breaks. (The boys never did have mirrors.) Bessemer City High School in Alabama now bans sandals, hoodies, sunglasses, headbands and jeans with holes in them.
In El Paso, Texas, Charles Middle School banned all-black clothing, claiming it is associated with depression. Some parents protested that this was going too far. In response, the school compromised, allowing students to dress only half in black (presumably for those days when students just feel a little gloomy). Wearing all black will be permitted on “free dress day” (when they are allowed to express their complete desolation). How else are students supposed to communicate when schools take away their phones?