University at Buffalo hosts online forum on school cell phone bans

Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The University at Buffalo will host an event Thursday evening to address cell phone bans in schools. Organizers hope to provide guidance to districts considering such a ban.

In New York, a handful of districts have cell phone bans for students in schools, one of them being Lackawanna. Meanwhile, in other states, the bans have become more prevalent.

UB's Amanda Nickerson says a lot of the concerns from parents have to do with a lack of access to being able to contact their children, mainly because of safety and or medical concerns.

"[For kids], I think it's very much, 'Well, this is such a part of our live and this is important to us. Why is this sort of another infringement on our rights or things like that?' But for parents, it seems to be mostly about safety and communication," said Nickerson with WBEN.

Nickerson hopes to take a proactive approach to the issue.

"This is certainly something that seems to be a pressing issue, something that our governor is doing listening tours on, and is likely going to propose that New York do this. But instead of just reacting to legislation or saying this is what we're going to do, we really want to take a thoughtful approach to why are schools going in this direction, what is the argument for it, what are some of the concerns about an argument against it," Nickerson said.

There's very limited research on how effective these bans are, and Nickerson says most of it is actually been done in other countries.

"So we just want to be really clear about that, and talk about the little bit that we do know and some of the sort of limitations and cautions. But probably most importantly, provide some recommendations for approaching the issue," she said.

The event, “School Cell Phone Bans: Key Considerations for Schools and Communities,” will take place on Thursday, Oct. 10, from 5:30 p.m.-to-7 p.m. ET via Zoom .