What’s happening
Byrd cited concerns over the mental health of students as a reason for recommending that Tarrant County schools prohibit cell phone usage, listing increases in anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and suicide due to social media use among students.
“The more time our children spend on social media, the more their mental health suffers,” Byrd said in the release, also citing the rise in cyberbullying and "sextortion."
“While originally designed to facilitate connection, social media has often had the opposite effect. Not only that, we’ve all seen and heard about children experiencing disruption in their sleep and a drop in their grades,” he said in the release.
Zooming out
Byrd’s call to ban cell phones in public schools follows suit of other districts in Texas that have implemented the rule. Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Carroll ISD, Keller ISD and Northwest ISD already have amended their student cell phone policies for the 2024-25 school year to limit how the devices are used during school hours.
Should Tarrant County ban cell phones in classrooms, students would be required to place them “in isolation” until the end of the school day, according to the release.
In the release, Byrd recommends that parents delay access to social media until children are 16 and give children simpler phones, like a flip phone.
