Parents in southern Maine say they want cellphones banned in schools from “bell to bell” not only to help students focus in class but also to let them develop social skills.

And while at least 30 schools around Maine have taken steps to regulate or ban the devices, these parents say it might be time for the state to offer guidance to local officials.

They point to a recent New York Times column by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in which he called for schools to be “phone-free experiences.” 

Many of them have read the book “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt, which warns of the mental health impacts of cellphone use by children.

On June 28, the Bath-based Regional School Unit 1 school board voted to ban cellphones and smartwatches in grades 6-12 during school hours, the latest district to set rules.

“This was researched and proposed by administrators as another layer of support to improve the mental health and academic success of our students,” Superintendent Patrick Manuel wrote in a letter to parents.

And as Maine schools and parents continue to grapple with the issue, it’s become a hot topic nationally too, with five states passing laws or policies to ban or restrict cellphones in schools or recommending that local districts do so, according to Education Week.

Some parents say it’s time for Maine state-level leaders to step up.

“Teachers, their job is to teach, not to regulate devices,” said Betsy Follansbee, a teacher and parent of two children. “I think a great way for the state of Maine to support teachers would be to take a stand on this.”

For Follansbee, whose husband Fred is also a teacher, the cellphone issue was the first time they had to make what she called a “formative decision.”

With an 11-year-old and a 9-year-old, most of the decisions so far have been easy — don’t jump off that high rock or don’t touch a hot stove.

“It’s the first time we’re on the opposite side of the kids,” she said.

Follansbee is a member of the Scarborough Alliance for Thoughtful Tech, one of several Maine groups dedicated to raising awareness of the impacts of social media on teen mental health.

She said her 11-year-old daughter has pleaded her case, offering reasons why she should have a phone, including the argument that all the other kids already have one, Follansbee said.

As a compromise, they’ve given her a watch she can use to call or text, but they have limited what she can access on the internet. And no social media.

“I’m of the mindset that kids don’t need a smartphone until high school,” she said. “They don’t need to have the internet in their back pockets.”

As a literacy specialist in a school in the greater Portland area, Follansbee said she’s noticed shorter attention spans, more limited vocabularies and difficulty making conversation in the 5–10-year-old children she works with.

In Falmouth, parents Matt Pines and Stacy Taylor are part of the Falmouth Alliance for Thoughtful Tech.

Pines, co-director of Maine Teen Camp, a device-free summer camp in Oxford County, has a son who will be in eighth grade at Falmouth Middle School in the fall.

“I’m worried as a parent about the impact of cellphones not just on interference with learning in the classroom but interference with social interaction in the hallways and the cafeteria,” he said.

While working at the camp, he sees first-hand what it’s like for teens who cannot access their devices for weeks at a time.

“I get to observe those really rich and valuable interpersonal interactions, that social skill development, and worry that we’re robbing our kids of the opportunities to develop those social skills, worried they are not getting enough practice interacting face to face throughout the school day,” he said.

Taylor, the mother of a 9-year-old, said the alliance set a goal of encouraging parents not to give their children cellphones until high school. She said her son got an iPad in kindergarten — what she called COVID kindergarten — and that she’s worried about how hard it will be to manage a cellphone as well.

When she started speaking to other parents, she realized many others wanted a “play-based childhood rather than the screen-based childhood which is more and more common.”

And from her perspective, schools should ban the use of cellphones from the moment a student arrives until the final bell rings. She said the state could help by taking the pressure off local school boards with a statewide stance.

“I hope that the state of Maine could come and provide some guidance to local school districts,” she said.

Amos Goss, a fellow Scarborough parent with a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old, said his children have cellphones, but he’s very much aware of the addictive nature of the technology.

He said he did not want to isolate his children from their peers, saying that by middle school, he realized they were not finding out about birthday parties. He also didn’t want his son to be the only player on the baseball team who’s not part of a group chat.

But rather than call for a government solution, he said he would like communities to come to an agreement about what works best for children.

“I also think as a culture you can kind of feel it,” he said. “We all know that feeling of a kid at a restaurant with their head down the entire time and they are in their own world.”