Tipsheet

Excellent: Youngkin, Virginia Just Made a Great Move for Kids in Schools

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  April 24, 2025 2:45 PM

Last summer, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order aimed at removing smart phones from schools in the state, citing growing evidence that the devices are cancerous to kids' mental health, on top of being toxic distractions from learning.  Less than a year later, he will sign bipartisan legislation -- passed by the narrowly-Democrat-controlled legislature -- making that vision a reality.  There are a number of encouraging elements to this story, including the fact that Youngkin managed to persuade legislators to abandon a proposed lunchtime loophole by providing them with compelling information that helped change minds.  It's also encouraging that this initiative, which seeks to end clear harm and damage to children and our country's future, is not a partisan exercise.  It is spreading across the country, in blue, red, and purple states alike.  The Wall Street Journal describes some of the Virginia-specific details:

The inspiration for Mr. Youngkin’s order was social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book, “The Anxious Generation.” The book argues with compelling evidence that mental-health issues are highly concentrated among screen-addicted children. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental-health problems—and the average American teenager spends nearly five. Rates of anxiety, depression, suicide and self-harm among youth have soared since 2010. As Mr. Haidt wrote last April, studies show “mental health improvements, increases in physical activity, and reductions in bullying when schools go phone-free.” Cellphones also impede academic performance: 72% of U.S. high-school teachers say phones are a major distraction in class, while 53% of public-school leaders believe they have a negative effect on student grades. Is it a coincidence that National Assessment of Educational Progress scores have plummeted?

As Virginia legislators sought to codify Mr. Youngkin’s order, they wanted to exempt lunch hours from the phone ban. But phones are also distracting during lunch. Mr. Youngkin sent copies of “The Anxious Generation” to all 140 lawmakers, along with a letter urging them to reconsider the exemption. On April 2 the Legislature unanimously approved his amended version, which directs school boards to “restrict student cell phone and smart device possession and use on school property from bell to bell”—meaning the entire school day. Comprehensive data on the effect of the phone bans won’t be available until after the 2024-25 school year, but case studies are promising. Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., participated in a pilot cellphone ban beginning in September. Students locked their phones in pouches upon arrival and retrieved them after the final bell. By April students and teachers reported higher rates of concentration, less violence and more robust face-to-face communication in school, according to CNN. At least eight other states have imposed bans on classroom cellphone use.

Teachers at schools with bell-to-bell cellphone bans have described more noise in hallways and during lunchtime, as students actually talk and interact with eachother, face to face. This is unquestionably healthier than kids sitting silently at lunch tables, heads bent downward toward the alluring glow of their screens, checking how many 'likes' their latest post has (or has not) gotten.  States that have implemented strong restrictions or bans on 'smart' devices during the school day include red states like Florida, Ohio, Indiana and Arkansas, blue states like California and Minnesota, and now purple Virginia.  Here's a snapshot of why this is such a positive development:  

Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia is part of a pilot program for the district that launched in September 2024, requiring students to put their phones inside magnetic locking pouches every morning. At the end of the day, they use a specialized box to unlock them. On the first days under the new policy, students were hesitant to part with their devices. “When I walked into the cafeteria right after we got them, all you could hear is the banging. Everyone was banging their pouch,” Lucas Lopez, a junior at Wakefield, said. Cabana, for his part, said the initial resistance justified the need for a drastic policy change. “They’re going through this kind of trouble to this extreme. This shows how this dependency has really turned into an addiction, not dissimilar from a drug,” Cabana said. Between July 2021 and December 2023, one-half of teenagers ages 12–17 reported four hours or more of daily screen time, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. 

Wakefield students admit their screen time before the ban was oftentimes much higher. Proponents for phone restrictions or bans point to fewer distractions in the classroom. After an adjustment period, students at Wakefield attest they’ve felt more present and focused on the instruction. “I remember the first day I was sitting in physics, my phone was locked up in my bag and I kept reaching for it, but I couldn’t, and the only thing I could do was sit on my computer and listen,” junior Alex Heaton said. “It was so freeing,” he added. It’s already clear that students are socializing with their peers in a renewed way. Senior Gabrielle Harber said the ban led to a realization that phones were giving people “an excuse to be isolated.” “People actually talk to each other at lunch now,” she said. “It’s very adorable. They’re hanging out, like something out of a movie.” Interpersonal violence has been at a record low, too, with one student saying she hadn’t seen a single fight this school year.

New York's leaders are now moving in this direction, and the Journal mentions a promising case study that influenced their thinking: "Dozens more are considering [taking similar action]—including New York, where one high school that banned cellphones in 2023 saw student grades increase to pre-pandemic levels within a year."  New Yorkers have suffered under awful leadership for years, and I'm no admirer of Gov. Kathy Hochul, but credit where it's due:

New York is on the verge of becoming the next state to ban cellphone use during school hours — a victory for its Democratic governor who has been pushing to drastically limit the “endless disruptions from social media” on students. Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers are hashing out the parameters of a full-day “bell-to-bell” restriction — one of the most sweeping issues the governor has championed during her tenure...“No smart phones, no ear buds, no cell phones, and here’s why: The mental health of our children, especially middle school and high school, is really declining,” Hochul said last month on Telemundo 47.

If Kathy Hochul and Gavin Newsom can agree with Ron DeSantis and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, it's clear that meaningful, pro-child, pro-learning consensus on this issue is possible.  Florida is moving to tighten up its law, with a stricter bill passing unanimously (117-0) in Tallahassee's lower House this month. Too many adults, particularly in Democratic strongholds, imposed devastating, anti-science decisions upon children and schools during the pandemic.  The least they can do to make amends is to eliminate a powerful and proven obstacle to recovery.  Finally, while this should be a no-brainer for kids in schools, adults should also consider the emerging body of proof that 'smart' phones are wrecking attention spans and concentration for people of all ages -- while making users, well, dumber: