Cellphones and other smart devices are one step closer to being banned from Utah classrooms
Feb 27, 2025, 12:00 PM | Updated: Feb 28, 2025, 2:02 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — A bill setting the default to no devices in classrooms passed a key House committee this week.
Avery Gonzales is a high school senior in the Cache County School District and paused to take a selfie before speaking in favor of SB178 on Tuesday.
Gonzales told the House Education Committee that phones are a common occurrence in her classroom.
“When I look around, that’s all I see. I like, look to the sides of me and kids are just staring at their phones and taking selfies while the teachers are trying to get our attention.”
The high schooler urged lawmakers to pass the bill, and said it was the healthy choice to make.
“As a kindergartner, I loved candy and I did not love brushing my teeth. But lucky for me, I had parents that love me enough to know what is best for me. My experiences with cellphones have been similar this year… I reluctantly came to the conclusion that the bad outweighs the good when it comes to phones in classrooms.”
While setting a statewide standard for banning devices from classrooms, the bill encourages individual school districts to create their own standards, which could go all the way from completely allowing devices, to a bell to bell ban, and anything in between.
The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, wanted to make it clear this is meant to encourage individual school districts to set their own policies.
“The state’s policy on this so far has been silence, right? We don’t take a position, but honestly that is a position,” Fillmore said. “The state’s position is… anything is okay unless a school district decides that it’s not okay and school districts are free to decide it’s not okay if they want to.”
State Sen. Lincoln Fillmore speaks to a House committee on Feb. 25, 2025. (House Education Committee)
“The downside of that policy is that we have put schools in the position of saying, ‘How are we going to restrict these devices in order to minimize the damage that they are causing in classrooms and in the lives of our students?”
Fillmore said his bill would change the default policy position to cellphones should not be used in school classrooms, unless districts decide otherwise.
“By changing that default policy, we change the question that school districts will ask, instead of saying, ‘How can we restrict these in order to limit the damage?’ It’s ‘How can we use and integrate this technology to help our students thrive in classrooms and in schools?” Fillmore said.
Anna Clayton, a junior at Olympus High School, also spoke in favor of a cellphone ban on Tuesday.
“When I first heard about the phone bill, I was against it, but decided to run a two-week experiment on phone use. I made my phone screen black and white, deleted all my social media, and left my phone in the car during school hours. And what I found shocked me, I became hyperaware of the addiction to my phone that had taken over my life.”
Clayton said she noticed that she had more conversations and interactions in the hall when she didn’t have her phone.
“Without my phone, I discovered peace and found that my life was enough. By getting a break from social media, I saw my insecurity diminish and my self-worth improve. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t figured it all out and I’m still struggling with my phone use, but I’m here in support because I think my peers and me would benefit from a break from our phones in school.”
The bill received unanimous support from the House Education Committee, and now heads for a full vote on the House floor.
