The case against a complete ban

There’s limited research available to date regarding the efficacy of school cellphone bans. Some studies, like one from 2024 at Auburn University, suggest such a policy could improve student engagement and social interactions with some limitations.

However, researchers at the University of Birmingham could not find much of a difference in academic and social outcomes between students who attended schools with cellphone bans and those who attended schools that did not.

School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington said in an interview with Philadelphia Magazine in August that he believes the decision is best made by each school.

“There are parents who feel very strongly that they need to be able to reach their children at all times, and there are others who feel the complete opposite,” Watlington told the magazine. “Cellphones can certainly be a distraction, but they can also be a walking library in the classroom.”

Some parents critical of legislative-level cellphone bans also highlight the need to reach their children in an era of school shootings and mass violence.

Santarsiero argued that cellphones, in those instances, may do more harm than good. Some school safety experts might agree.

Santarsiero recalled a time when he was a teacher where an armed robbery several blocks away prompted a lockdown at the school. Unaware of the robbery, he locked the classroom door, gathered his students to the corner of the room, away from the windows, and waited for instructions.

“We did that, and for the next hour and a half, before the incident was resolved, the kids started going on their phones, and they were texting home and really spreading a lot of rumors that turned out not to be true: that there was an armed shooter roaming the halls, that we were in imminent danger. And this was now filtering out to parents,” he said. “It was filtering out to other students, and it was creating a level of anxiety that was not helpful to trying to manage the situation.”

Pennsylvania School Boards Association, or PSBA, opposes Senate Bill 1014.

“While PSBA supports the goal of fostering learning-focused environments, the proposed legislation imposes a statewide, mandatory bell-to-bell ban on student cell phone use—stripping locally elected school boards of the ability to make decisions that best serve their communities,” the association wrote in a statement. “PSBA believes that locally elected school directors are in the best position to make decisions for their school communities concerning the use and possession of cell phones and other electronic devices in schools.”

According to PSBA, the bill “usurps local control.”

“PSBA also has some concerns with the wording of SB 1014, specifically the language regarding restriction of device possession and with the language regarding public comment,” PSBA wrote. “The bill would require schools to establish the manner in which a student’s possession of a device is to be restricted. It is unclear whether this language would require schools to take some sort of action to separate a student from their phone at the start of each school day (such as by purchasing and using lockable cell phone bags).”

Hughes said that officials must acknowledge the “good” that comes with the advancements in communication technology. However, he said the harm cannot be ignored.

“We need to have thoughtful conversations to come up with thoughtful policies that advantages the best of this technology, and minimizes the pain and the hurt that the technology can have on people — especially our children,” Hughes said.

The Senate is scheduled to return to session in January.

NEW YORK — The first time Gov. Josh Shapiro attended the glitzy Pennsylvania Society dinner in midtown Manhattan, he was a young lawmaker invited by David L. Cohen.

Fifteen years later, Shapiro again sat front and center with Cohen, on Saturday night in New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel. The governor and the former U.S. ambassador to Canada celebrated Cohen’s receipt of a gold medal award, which has typically been given to the likes of former presidents, prominent philanthropists, and influential businesspeople.

“I still remember that feeling of sitting here, in this storied hotel, inspired not just by this grand, historic room, but most especially by the people in it. I just felt honored to be here,” Shapiro recalled in his remarks Saturday night to the 127th annual Pennsylvania Society dinner. “We’ve come full circle.”

The Pennsylvania Society, which began in the Waldorf Astoria in 1899 by wealthy Pennsylvania natives who were living in New York and hoping to effect change in their home state, returned Saturday to the iconic hotel for the first time in eight years to honor Cohen for his lifetime of achievement and contributions to Pennsylvania.

The $1,000-per-plate dinner closed out the Pennsylvania Society weekend in New York City, where the state’s political elite — local lawmakers, federal officials, university presidents, and top executives — travel to party, fundraise, and schmooze across Midtown Manhattan, with the goal of making Pennsylvania better.

Each of the approximately 800 attendees at Saturday night’s dinner was served filet mignon as their entree and a cherry French pastry for dessert. The candlelit tables in the grand ballroom had an elaborate calla lily centerpiece — a flower often symbolizing resurrection or rebirth, as the society had its homecoming after years away while the hotel was closed for renovations.

Shapiro, who has delivered remarks to the Pennsylvania Society dinner each year of his first term as governor, focused on the polarization of the moment. He said the antidote that Pennsylvanians want is for top officials to work together and show the good that government can achieve to make people’s lives better.

“Let us be inspired by that spirit and take the bonds we form tonight back home to our cities, towns, and farmlands, and continue to find ways to come together, make progress, and create hope,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro also thanked the members of the society for their support after an attempt on his life by a man who later pleaded guilty to setting fires in the governor’s residence on Passover while he and his family slept inside.

» READ MORE: Cody Balmer, who set fire to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion, pleads guilty to attempted murder

Cohen was honored as a Philadelphia stalwart whose long career includes stints as an executive at Comcast, chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s board of trustees, and five years as Ed Rendell’s chief of staff during his mayorship.

He was recognized in a prerecorded video featuring praise from former U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and former University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, Rendell, and others the 70-year-old Cohen has worked with throughout his career.

Rendell attended the dinner with his ex-wife and federal appellate court Judge Marjorie “Midge” Rendell. In his prerecorded remarks, Ed Rendell credited Cohen as the true governor and mayor of Philadelphia for all of his work behind the scenes.

Cohen, who continues his work to promote the relationship between the United States and Canada since his return to Philadelphia this year, began his remarks following his introduction with a joke: “It’s sort of nice to hear a preview of your obituary,” he said with a laugh.

Cohen gave an impassioned speech defending democracy and recognizing America’s position in the world, even as polarization reaches a fever pitch in the country. He credited the society as a place where America’s founding tenets are achieved.

“These Pennsylvania Society principles represent what the United States is supposed to stand for as a country, a promoter and defender of democratic values, values that have special residence in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, where our country was born almost 250 years ago,” Cohen said.

And Cohen had a dispatch from his years as an ambassador, followed by a call to action: “From our comfortable perch in Pennsylvania, I don’t think we always appreciate what we have here in the United States and the critical role that America plays on the global stage in promoting democracy.”