On Oct. 10, a bill was introduced to the Pennsylvania Senate that would require every school in the state to adopt a policy banning phone use during the school day on school property; dubbed a “bell-to-bell” phone ban. According to the sponsoring senators, support for this bill is driven by the increasing use of phones in schools and the growing prevalence of mental health issues among students.
However, an absolute ban in school could compromise student safety through a lack of communication. These consequences can be observed through phone policies already implemented in other Pennsylvania districts.
“[A phone ban] would not surprise me with the amount of issues we have with cell phones in schools. And not just us, just in general,” Officer Matt Hertlein, State High’s School Resource Officer (SRO), said, commenting on the speculation of a phone ban in Pennsylvania in an interview on Oct. 9, only a day before the bill was introduced.
Compared to other schools in Pennsylvania, State High has a lenient phone policy. According to the 2025-2026 SCASD Student and Family Handbook, “Cell phones must be turned off or set to silent mode during class time. Phones are to be put in a backpack/away, and phones should remain in the classroom if a student needs to use the restroom. Supervising adults may allow cell phone use for specific educational activities or research purposes. If a student needs to use their phone during class, they are required to communicate with their teacher before doing so.”
Thus, exceptions can be made for special circumstances. Students at State High are permitted to use their cell phones during non-instructional periods, like class changes and lunch, but the introduced bill would prohibit cell phone use even during these times.
“I know my son goes to a different high school, and they’re a lot more strict,” Hertlein said. “They have to put it away during class to get caught with that out. They get sent down to the office a second time, then they actually hold the phone for the entire day, and they can pick it up at the end of the day. And a third time, then they get in school suspension.”
However, this policy differs from the Wyoming Area Secondary Center, a high school in Northeast Pennsylvania, which began using Yondr pouches on the second day of the 2025-2026 school year and prohibits the use of phones, Apple Watches and AirPods within the school building.
“We have Yondr pouches, which are basically bags that get locked with a magnet,” Allison Layland, a junior at Wyoming Area High School, said. “No phones, Apple watches, or AirPods in the school. If you accidentally walk in with them not in the Yondr bag, or forget to leave it in the car, you either have to pay $5 to borrow a Yondr bag from the office for the day, or leave your electronics in the office, and a parent has to come and pick them up.”
This policy caused safety risks for students at Wyoming Area. For example, on Sept. 23, the school received a threat, and the students had to immediately evacuate. However, students’ phones and car keys were still in the Yondr bags inside their lockers.
“You couldn’t get anything,” Layland said. “This left students in distress, wondering how to get home, and we had no way of contacting parents.”
Eventually, students were assigned to buses and taken home, but many still had no means of communication.
“After the whole school was searched and there was no threat in place anymore, we still weren’t allowed to get any belongings from the school until the next day. If students were carrying around their Yondr bags, there were magnets at the evacuation spot to unlock the pouches on the way out to the buses, but at the time, we weren’t allowed to carry backpacks around the school, so very few people had their belongings with them,” Layland said.
The threat left students at the evacuation point scared and virtually isolated. Students had no way of telling their parents they were safe and couldn’t drive to safety, highlighting the logistical safety issues of a complete phone ban.
If Pennsylvania adopted a state-wide bell-to-bell phone ban, the chances of cases like this would increase. Without communication, students would be at risk, a position State High and every other school in Pennsylvania strive to avoid.
State High security personnel highlight the conflict between parental concern and the goal of avoiding distractions.
“I’m not against [phone bans]. I mean, I do understand that a lot of parents want communication with their kids, which, honestly, I’m a parent of 15 and a 12-year-old, so I’m right there,” Hertlein said.
“As a parent, I think I would like to be able to get in touch with my kid if I need to or if he needs to get in touch with me,” security guard Anthony Begnal said. “But I think it’s good that people don’t have their phones in class, you know, so they can pay attention to what they’re supposed to be learning.”
But at the end of the day, lives matter more than grades. A complete phone ban, as introduced in Senate Bill 1014, could pose safety risks to students by cutting off communication. This stresses students, parents, and faculty, highlighting the question of whether it is worth solving a problem with another problem.
