Texas Cell Phone Ban In Schools Raises Safety Concerns
Texas Cell Phone Ban For Children In School Raises Safety Concerns
In a move that seems to completely ignore recent history, Texas has passed a cell phone ban for students in K-12 schools.
According to Fox 7, Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1481, which bans students from using cell phones during the school day. The law requires schools to either ban students from bringing cell phones on campus or provide a secure location for students to put their phones when they arrive at school. The law bans cell phones, tablets, smartwatches, and any device “capable of telecommunication or digital communication.” The Texas cell phone ban also requires schools to punish students if they’re found using any of the aforementioned devices during school hours.
As the bill was passed with more than a two-thirds majority in both the state Senate and House, the law immediately went into effect for the 2025-2026 school year. State Rep. Caroline Fairly (R-Amarillo), who authored the bill, said it was designed to improve mental health for students.
“The reality is our generation is more depressed, anxious, less focused, and more distracted than ever before,” she said during a March meeting of the Texas House Committee on Public Education.
While the Texas cell phone ban received overwhelming support in the legislature, the reception is mixed among students and parents.
Last year, students at Houston’s Madison High School walked out to protest a cell phone ban already in effect at their school. Students who spoke to ABC 13 repeatedly cited safety and potential family emergencies as to why they opposed the cell phone ban.
“If my phone is in the office and someone decides they’ve had enough and they come and shoot the school up and my phone is in the office with you guys, so I can’t contact my mother, I cannot get home. I cannot see who is going to take me home,” one student told ABC13.
“I have a friend. Her mom ended up in the hospital, and they were calling her and calling her, but since the school (had) her phone on Thursday, she couldn’t get in touch with her until after the fact,” another student added.
California has a similar cell phone ban in place for K-12 schools, but it also has a carve-out to allow students to use phones “in the case of an emergency, or in response to a perceived threat of danger.”
Such a carve-out isn’t present in the Texas cell phone ban, which is concerning given that Texas is a famously gun-friendly state. It has some of the most permissive gun laws in the country, with recent legislation seeking to further lower restrictions on guns in the state.
The Texas cell phone ban is meant to protect children, but if that were truly their concern they’d first go to work on strengthening gun laws. Guns are the number one cause of death for children in America, and studies have shown that states with permissive gun laws have higher rates of children dying in gun-related incidents.
The cell phone ban is particularly concerning, given that some of the deadliest mass shootings in recent history have occurred over the last decade in Texas. There was the Santa Fe school shooting in 2018 that killed eight students and two teachers, the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting that killed 23 people, and the Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 students and two adults.
Given the long history of gun violence in the state and the sadly commonplace occurrence of school shootings, it’s understandable that students and parents have safety concerns about the cell phone ban.
SEE ALSO:
