Horne plans to ban cell phones in classrooms across Arizona

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne wants to ban cell phones from classrooms, and he's looking for legislative help to do that.

Horne held a press conference Aug. 22 on revisiting legislation to ban student cell phone use in classrooms across the state. The proposed bill echoes House Bill 2793 that was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs last session.

HB 2793 was sponsored by District 28 Republican Rep. Beverly Pingerelli, whose district includes portions of Peoria and north Phoenix as well as Sun City and Sun City West. The bill would have restricted student access to social media platforms on school internet and limit uses of personal and school-provided wireless communication devices outside of teacher instruction. This restriction goes beyond in-class time and extends to lunch and passing periods.

“(Cell phone use) has become the heroin of our time, and we really have to take action against it,” Horne said.

Mitchell Rutherford, a former Tucson public school teacher, said he left the classroom in part because of student phone addiction.

“Learning together, face-to-face is one of the most ancient activities. Human beings have learned together in groups since before the creation of language,” Rutherford said. “But if you’re talking to someone on your phone, you’re not talking to them face-to-face. There’s something so crucial for development… that you get face-to-face.”

In the coming legislative session, Horne says he will again push for cellphones to be inaccessible to students throughout the school day. The bill looks to bypass existing Arizona laws that give local education organizations the power to create rules around cell phone usage. School districts like Litchfield Elementary School District already have policies in place requiring students to have cell phones off to be kept in their backpacks.

In committee meetings discussing the original bill, representatives across party lines agreed student distractions through phones was a problem and that the solution was unclear.

“We already have laws on the books, we already know that teachers are going to have to enforce this and be the bad guys,” Democratic Rep. Judy Schwiebert said. “I think we all agree that cell phones are a problem, but I don’t know that passing a new rule is going to fix the problem.”

The bill passed through the House and Senate on Republican votes alone and was voted against by all but one Democrat, who abstained from voting.