Stitt declines to issue a statewide ban on phones in schools, instead encourages districts to create their own policiesOKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Kevin Stitt has challenged Oklahoma schools to adopt phonefree classroom policies, calling the proliferation of cellphones in schools a “real and worsening problem.”The Republican governor issued an executive order on Wednesday creating the “Oklahoma Phone-Free Schools Challenge” to encourage schools to limit student cellphone use through cost-neutral strategies. He stopped short of issuing a statewide ban on cellphones in schools and is not requiring districts to participate in the challenge.Stitt said cellphones and social media have caused a “worrying trend” of distraction, bullying and learning difficulties in schools. His executive order also cites concerns of a negative impact on children’s mental health.“Those of you in the classroom know the best way to solve this problem, not big government,” the governor said in a pre-recorded video. “Parents, we need to talk to our kids about their screen time and make sure that they’re getting the most out of their school day.”Stitt enters the school cellphone debate at a time when multiple Oklahoma districts are tightening restrictions on mobile devices in their classrooms and campuses. Seven other states, most of them Republican-led, have mandated that districts implement cellphone-limiting policies or ordered outright bans on cellphone use in schools.Legislation seeking to limit student cellphone use has been introduced across the country, including in Oklahoma. A bill failed in the state Senate this year that would have offered grants to schools that enact a phone-free campus policy.Although some Republicans at the state Capitol have said they would support a statewide school cellphone ban, Stitt declined to do so. Instead, his executive order challenges schools to work with families and policy makers to develop commonsense and cost-neutral solutions to reduce student cellphone use.The policies should be unique to each school, Stitt said, and could be as simple as collecting phones in a cardboard box at the beginning of class.“As governor and as a dad, I want to fix it,” Stitt said in his video. “But, I know government sometimes makes one-size-fitsall directives, and that’s the problem, not the solution. So instead, I want to partner with teachers and parents in addressing this crisis, not make top-down demands that are impossible to meet. That’s why instead of issuing an order, I’m issuing a challenge.”Stitt’s secretary of education, Nellie Tayloe Sanders, and the Oklahoma Department ...
