A group of parents wants Wake County to ban cellphones in schools

The Wake County Public School System doesn't have a district-wide policy regulating the use of cellphones in schools — but a group of parents, led by a former Raleigh city councilor, believes it should begin banning them.

Why it matters: Cellphone bans are already increasingly popular across the country, with many cities, states and school districts recently adopting the measures, Axios' Jennifer A. Kingson writes.

• Proponents argue phones are distracting students from learning and keeping them from socializing effectively outside of the classroom.

Driving the news: Former Raleigh City Council member Nicole Stewart and the group of parents argued their case for a ban at a recent Wake County school board meeting.

• Stewart, who has a 12- and 14-year-old in Wake County public schools, said children are struggling to pay attention in class because they are being distracted by alerts from phones or fellow students using them.
• "In addition, they're not doing in person socializing as much" between classes or lunch, she said in an interview. "They're picking up the addictive tablet or phone that's in their pocket and scrolling or sending messages or worst case bullying people through tech."

The other side: Many parents are hesitant to ban phones, which give them easy access to their children during the day and can be a learning tool, Kingson writes.

State of play: While there's no district-wide policy, the district does let individual schools determine its own policies, though the policies can vary significantly.

Between the lines: The debate over phones in schools is tied to the debate over whether social media is causing depression and other mental health problems in children.

• A new book by NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, "The Anxious Generation," argues that the new "phone-based childhood" is extremely harmful, with social media being a major culprit. Stewart cited the book as influential on her.
• He recommends keeping smartphones away from kids until high school, and giving them flip-phones in middle school instead.

Go deeper: Phone bans in schools are taking off across the U.S.