NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Earlier this year, New Mexico lawmakers stopped short of banning cell phones in schools—but they did pass a bill requiring every school district to implement a wireless communication device policy. The goal: give local educators the flexibility to address distractions from cell phones and other devices in ways that best suit their students. So, is the new law making a difference in the classroom?
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Sen. Crystal Brantley (R-Turth or Consequences) emphasized the law’s local-control approach. “The policies will be very different depending on each school district because it’s up to the local school district on what that policy is going to look like. Some of them may simply say keep the phone in your backpack or lockers while others may have actually gone the extra mile to purchase lock bags and actually lock up those cell phones during cell phone hours,” Brantley explained.
While the law only mandates that districts have a policy, some schools decided to adopt stricter rules this year. “This year we decided that we needed something a little bit more,” said Cindy Orthman, principal of Quemado Independent School, west of Socorro.
At Quemado, students are now required to place their phones in lock boxes for the entire school day—a step Orthman says is already paying off. “Because when they’re in their backpacks, you’re still getting the notifications, you’re still hearing the buzzing of Snapchat or Instagram, whatever’s going off,” she said.
Just two weeks into the school year, Orthman is already seeing a shift in student behavior. “The engagement from the time they walk in the door, to finding their peers, eating, and socializing, and just being present, is night and day from what it was last year,” she said.
Orthman said the overall goal isn’t just about discipline—it’s about teaching students to balance their screen time. She says she’d recommend the policy to other schools, but acknowledged that having only 90 students in the school’s 7-12 grades, no doubt, makes the lock-box policy easier to manage than a school with thousands of students.
In Santa Fe, Mandela International Magnet School took a different approach. After attempting a full ban last year, the school has eased restrictions this year by adopting Santa Fe Public Schools’ district-wide policy. It allows limited phone use at lunch and between classes, while continuing to ban phone calls, gaming, cameras, and the use of earbuds.
Principal Randy Grillo said the school considered lock pouches but was told there was no funding for them. In his experience, phones aren’t usually a problem in classrooms—but rather in the in-between moments.
“In the past, I’ve noticed the vast majority of discipline issues stem from something that’s being photographed and posted online, and so taking that avenue away in school has drastically reduced how many discipline issues we have at school,” Grillo said.
Sen. Brantley believes that implementing consistent cell phone policies across the state is essential for student well-being. “A number of school districts that were not implementing or had any sort of cell phone policy. We needed them to acknowledge the abuse that’s happening with our students. We need to acknowledge the mental health crisis, the bullying, the negative impacts of what’s happening with the amount of time that our students are spending on the phone,” she said.
She also stressed the role parents play in setting boundaries. “The number one indicator of student success is parental involvement. So while the schools are doing their part to restrict cell phone use, I encourage parents to encourage their students to get off their phones during dinner time, to have face-to-face conversations, and make sure they’re doing their part in home to restrict cell phone use as well.”
Grillo echoed the importance of teaching personal responsibility. “If we can ultimately teach students to be accountable and make decisions that are the best for a greater community, we don’t have to take things away from them — because hopefully they’re being thoughtful in their decisions in the first place,” he said.
The original bill, SB11, had earmarked $10 million for school districts that needed funds to implement a lock-box or lock-pouch system, but the funding was ultimately cut. “We will return this next legislative session to try to get that funding back in and to create a grant program to reimburse school districts,” said Brantley.
While the Public Education Department is collecting copies of cell phone policies from every district across New Mexico, it remains unclear how many schools have actually implemented changes this year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
