KENMORE, NY (WKBW) — “I'm hearing a cry for help from our young people,” declared Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday.
Cell phones in classrooms have become a major challenge for educators and have become an addiction that is harming the mental health of so many of our children. Gov. Hochul is on a mission to fix it.
The governor held her fourth roundtable discussion on Wednesday at the Kenmore Junior/Senior High School as she continues to consider drafting potential legislation that could ban all phones from classrooms across the state.
@GovKathyHochul is back in WNY hosting a roundtable discussion in the @ktufsd with area school leaders and state lawmakers discussing the state of children’s mental health with their constant connection to cell phones: “I’m hearing a cry for help from our young people.” @WKBW pic.twitter.com/LR4bhh3PiW
— Eileen Buckley (@eileenwkbw) July 24, 2024
“This has become the challenge of our time,” remarked Hochul.
Hochul has been meeting with educators, school leaders and parents, learning just how addicted kids are to smart devices that cause a major distraction in classrooms.
"We have a mental health crisis in society and it is on steroids for young people, particularly in middle schools and high schools,” Hochul explained.
But this time, the roundtable also included state lawmakers, including Assembly Speaker Crystal Peoples-Stokes, as the governor edges closer to proposing a bill that could ban cell phones in schools statewide.
“Governor with all this information that you've gathered when will you propose legislation to ban cell phones in schools?” I asked.
“We have the luxury of time because the legislature is not back until January, so this is an area where I’ve been developing our policies, listening, but also I want to engage the legislators,” replied Governor Hochul. “But I’m anxious to move ahead, I really am. I've heard an awful lot. I just think that people need to hear what I’m hearing.”
“It is a distraction and it's a problem. We have to do something,” described Bill Conrad, New York State Assemblyman.
Conrad may have the best perspective saying as adults, we must recognize this is a big problem in a classroom.
“As an adult, I recognize it's an addiction. We're not going to suspend kids for this type of thing. We're going to you know, we have to deal with it,” stated Conrad.
Conrad is in support of the governor's efforts and says now is the time to think “out of the box."
“I have a 14-year-old daughter. I have an app I downloaded and pay $10 extra a month and I can shut off her phone socially for the rest of the day and at night and then the only thing she can do is text and call,” Conrad noted.
“My concern is how are we going to do it in a school like a school like Kenmore East that has 1,100 kids,” reflected Matt Chimera.
Chimera is the Ken-Ton School Board President and spent 38 years in the classroom. He said when he taught at Kenmore East, cell phones were a huge distraction to learning and that's why at one of the district's non-traditional high schools, phones were successfully taken away.
“It was a game changer, and the program is thriving nowadays, and I don't know for would be if it wasn't for us being able to get rid of those cell phones,” Chimera commented.
Media members were only allowed to attend Hochul’s opening statements at the start of the roundtable discussion which lasted less than 10 minutes. Then she held a private roundtable with educators and state leaders. But just before the private portion started, the Ken-Ton Schools superintendent stated “cell phones in schools are the bane” of his existence.
The governor said that she's heard so much from school superintendents and teachers, asking the state to put the ban in place to take the burden off a school or district to make that decision and she believes there is a “strong consensus.”
