318 signatures as of June 15! (updated reguarly)
Why is this important?
Our kids deserve phone-free schools. And anything other than a complete ban on phones during the day is not really a ban; it's more of an unenforceable wish.
The jury is in. Smartphones decimate attention, learning, and inclusion. When phones entered schools around 2012, test scores across the country began to fall, and rates of depression and anxiety began to rise. This happened all over the world, at the same time. (Please check out the NYT bestseller, The Anxious Generation.)
Cell phones are eroding our schools. In a typical day, the average teen receives 60 notifications during the school day. A child whose phone is buzzing in their pocket is a child who is not paying attention in class. (And with a phone within reach, students are "forever elsewhere.") Cell phones in our schools are bringing about more classroom conflicts, cyber-bullying and teacher burnout.
We can do better than this in Falmouth. For the success and well-being of our children, we need to take action and join schools across the country that have already implemented phone-free schools.
Together, we can turn the tide.