School districts across the US are banning smartphones. Could a Pueblo district be next?

State governors across the country are pushing for classroom bans on smartphones while school districts as close to Pueblo as Colorado Springs School District 11 are updating their policies to enforce similar bans this school year.

Samuel Ebersole, a professor in Colorado State University Pueblo's Department of Media and Entertainment, suggested that Pueblo County School District 70 follow the lead of District 11, Los Angeles Unified School District and others in prohibiting smartphone use "during instructional time."

Ebersole gave a presentation on the matter during a Pueblo D70 board meeting Tuesday, in which he advocated for policy to increase student social interaction and disable classroom laptops from accessing social media.

"There is now extensive research pointing to phones and social media as the source of underperformance in academic achievement and as major contributing factors to bullying and anxiety," he said.

Research cited in Ebersole's presentation included a study from the American Psychological Association that found teens spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on social media and that teens with high social media use are more likely to report poor mental health.

Ebersole also referenced a 2019-2021 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reported suicide rates for girls spiked 167% since 2010, while those for boys spiked 91%. Additionally, he spoke about "The Anxious Generation," a New York Times bestseller by Jonathan Haidt warning of a "Great Rewiring" in children.

"It's the Great Rewiring because it's doing things that we never anticipated, but it's changing their trajectory for future achievement," Ebersole said. "(Haidt) makes it quite clear, collective problems require collective solutions. Parents can't do it alone. School administrators and teachers can't do it alone, but collectively we can."

Classroom restrictions on smartphones have received bipartisan support. Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Kathy Hochul of New York are considering smartphone bans in schools across their states.

Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Eric Holcomb of Indiana already have approved classroom smartphone bans, according to the USA Today .

Colorado Springs District 11 's updated policy mandates that the cell phones of elementary school students be placed in backpacks while middle school and high schoolers have their phones and smart watches secured throughout the school day in Yondr pouches, according to the district's 2024-25 cell phone policy.

Students in Pueblo D70 are responsible for ensuring cell phones and other telecommunications devices are turned off in school buildings, buses, field trips and other sponsored activities. Use of devices at "unauthorized times" by students will result in confiscation, according to Pueblo D70's policy on the use of electronic devices.

Pueblo D70's neighbors, Pueblo School District 60, has adopted a nearly identical policy to Pueblo D70's.

Following Ebersole's Tuesday presentation, Pueblo D70 board members and Superintendent Ronda Rein agreed to consider updates to the district's current electronic device policy while collecting input from teachers, students, principals, parents and community members.

"We're going to gather all the data on what each school is doing," Rein said during the Tuesday meeting. "We have to have buy-in from the high schools, from teachers, from parents, from kids, from enforcement... There just has to be some conversations about it before."

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: School districts across the US are banning smartphones. Could a Pueblo district be next?