News from the South - Alabama News Feed
School cellphone bans spread across states, though enforcement could be tricky
School cellphone bans spread across states, though enforcement could be tricky
by Robbie Sequeira, Alabama Reflector
February 24, 2025
Across the country, state lawmakers are finding rare bipartisan ground on an increasingly urgent issue for educators and parents: banning cellphone use in schools.
Fueling these bans is growing research on the harmful effects of smartphone and social media use on the mental health and academic achievement of grade to high school students.
In 2024, at least eight states — California, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia — either expanded or adopted policies or laws to curtail cellphone use in schools.
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This year, lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin have proposed bans moving in their state legislatures.
Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week signed a law requiring schools to ban students’ access to cellphones and other personal electronic devices during the school day.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a broader electronics device ban this year.
Last month, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her plans to ban smartphones at schools.
And last week, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker proposed a statewide ban on cellphones in classrooms.
Some experts warn, however, that these bans might be difficult to enforce — or may simply be outdated before they even take effect.
“The genie is out of the bottle, and squeezing it back in is going to be nearly impossible,” said Ken Trump, a longtime school safety expert and president of National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm. “Phones and social media have fundamentally changed society, and by extension, schooling. Outright bans may be unrealistic or difficult to enforce effectively.”
Trump thinks governors, in particular, are responding to a trend rather than conducting thorough research. “Our elected officials are running to say, ‘he [introduced a bill] so I’m going to do it too.’ … Once Florida passed their bill, it’s been an explosion.”
Florida in 2023 became the first state to enact an outright ban on cellphone use during instructional time, followed by Louisiana and South Carolina last year. Other states, including Alaska and Connecticut, issued recommendations rather than mandates, encouraging local districts to develop their own policies.
In Minnesota, districts are required to implement their own policies under the law passed last year. But a bill sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Alice Mann would ban cellphones and smartwatches in elementary and middle schools, and restrict the use of those devices in high school classrooms beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.
Mann began considering the measure after hearing directly from students last year.
“We had a committee hearing where kids told us how distracting cellphones were. That really caught our attention,” she said. “We talked to school districts across the state — some had no policy, some had bans for one or two years, and some had bans for longer. The ones with bans all said the same thing: ‘It’s been wonderful.’”
Enforcement
Even where bans exist, enforcement varies widely. Some schools use Yondr pouches, lockable sleeves that prevent phone access during the school day. Others require students to store their phones in lockers or classroom pouches, while some schools rely on simple classroom rules prohibiting phone use.
According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of U.S. high school teachers say that cellphone distraction is a major issue in their classrooms. While many teachers and administrators report positive changes after bans, students have quickly adapted, finding ways to bypass rules by slipping calculators or dummy phones into pouches, or switching to smartwatches to check social media and send texts.
“Students are more tech-savvy than lawmakers,” said Trump, the school safety expert. “They find workarounds — whether it’s through smartwatches, Chromebooks or school Wi-Fi.”
States such as Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho and Pennsylvania allocated funding for programs that provide schools with lockable phone storage pouches, or financial rewards for districts that create their own restrictive policies.
A proposed bill in Texas would go so far as to charge students up to $30 to retrieve a phone that was confiscated for violating a cellphone ban.
Schools have wrestled with how to regulate mobile devices for decades — with bans on devices such as pagers dating back to the late 1980s. In 2024, 76% of U.S. public schools prohibited cellphones for nonacademic use, notes the National Center for Education Statistics.
Total bans?
The Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles has enforced strict no-phone policies since its founding in 2017. The charter school’s no-phone policy means no usage on campus, during off-campus experiences, or even on school buses — a step beyond most phone bans.
“Cellphones present a major distraction and temptation for students,” Vanessa Garza, Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles executive director and founding principal, wrote in a statement to Stateline. “This long-standing policy has allowed our students to foster deep friendships, experience enhanced learning, and regulate healthy emotions.”
Instead of top-down state mandates, Trump, the school security expert, thinks that schools should focus on reasonable restrictions and consensus-based policies that work for individual communities.
“If you try to ban phones entirely, enforcement becomes a nightmare,” he said. “What happens when kids don’t comply? Are schools going to dedicate staff just to cellphone discipline? If policies aren’t enforced consistently, they become meaningless.”
Trump said in school emergencies, students flooding 911 with calls can overwhelm emergency responders.
If a parent needs to get in touch with their child, they can call the school, just like they always could before cellphones were in every pocket.
– Minnesota Democratic state Sen. Alice Mann
Mann, the Minnesota lawmaker, dismissed the idea that the pushback on phone bans is coming from students. Instead, she thinks parents are the ones most resistant to restrictions.
“Some parents are worried they won’t be able to reach their kids, but they absolutely can. If a parent needs to get in touch with their child, they can call the school, just like they always could before cellphones were in every pocket,” said Mann.
“What we’re hearing from students is that their phones are pinging in class all day long — and a lot of it is from parents. Parents texting, ‘What should we have for dinner?’ or ‘I’ll be home late.’ These are not emergencies.”
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
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Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.
The post School cellphone bans spread across states, though enforcement could be tricky appeared first on alabamareflector.com
News from the South - Alabama News Feed
Study: Alabama’s moral turpitude laws contribute to racial disenfranchisement disparities
by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
September 2, 2025
BIRMINGHAM — Robert Cheeks cast a ballot in Birmingham’s municipal elections last week and received a standing ovation from poll workers.
It was the first time that Cheeks, 82, had voted. Until the most recent election, his criminal history barred him from participating in the electoral process.
“I had never voted before and it was always my wish to vote,” he said after he cast his ballot. “I had the opportunity, encouraged, to vote, and I said I want to exercise my right as a citizen in the state, and I wanted to vote because I had never voted before.”
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For Black Alabamians like Cheeks who have criminal convictions, getting the right to vote restored can be difficult, according to a new report from Return My Vote, an organization that assists people with criminal convictions with regaining their right to vote.
The study, “Alabama’s Moral Turpitude Law Disproportionately Strips Black Citizens of Their Voting Rights,” found that Black Alabamians were four times more likely to lose their right to vote than white Alabamians.
“The most basic, and most important, finding is that overall that people who were dropped from the voter file or denied registration due to felony conviction, a majority of them were Black,” said Richard Fording, a professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a co-author of the study. “Not a large majority, but over 50% of them were Black. It was about twice the percentage of the general population that is Black in Alabama, and so, of course that is alarming.”
Alabama laws generally deny the vote to those convicted of crimes of moral turpitude, a broad phrase that was subject to interpretation until the state began listing specific crimes under it in 2017. While some states automatically restore voting rights after a person completes a sentence, Alabama has a more complicated process.
While only a handful of crimes can permanently cost a person their vote, some require pardons from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Others require a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote once they have completed their sentence, which includes payment of any fines, fees and restitution.
The authors of the study studied 25,000 people removed from the voter rolls or disqualified from voting between 2017 and 2020 due to criminal conviction. Study authors were able to review the information only after the Campaign Legal Center had obtained the records after a federal judge had required the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office to release it.
Disparities
According to the study, Black men were disenfranchised at a rate of 22.4 citizens per 1,000 men of voting age. That is almost four times the rate for their white counterparts, whose rate was 6.7 citizens per 1,000.
The rate for disenfranchising Black women was 3.9 citizens per 1,000, almost twice the rate of white women, whose disenfranchisement rate was 2.1 citizens per 1,000 white women.
Counties with significant Black populations had some of the highest Black disenfranchisement rates and largest racial disparities in disenfranchisement. Seven of the 10 counties with the highest rates of disenfranchised voters are within the Black Belt. The rate for disenfranchising Black men in Monroe, more than 40% Black, was 40.6, compared to 8 per 1,000 for white men. In Perry County, with a Black population of 70%, the rate was 30 citizens per 1,000 Black men of voting age. The rate was 11.4 for white men, almost three times lower.
The disparities are less pronounced for women in the same counties, but they still exist. In Monroe County, Black women are disenfranchised at a rate of 5.6 citizens per 1,000 Black women who are at least 18 years old. For white women in that county, the rate is 2.4, less than half.
Study authors stated in the report that even though there is some uncertainty with the information because of problems collecting data, after reviewing the Uniform Crime Report data obtained from the FBI website, the findings indicated that more Blacks are disenfranchised than whites even when criminal convictions are considered.
“Nevertheless, the most important takeaway is that the disproportionate percentage of arrests for disqualifying offenses by Blacks in Alabama (42%) cannot fully account for the significantly higher percentage of Blacks disenfranchised by the state (52%) during 2017-2021,” the report states.
The study also found that Blacks have a more difficult time regaining their right to vote after they are removed from the voter rolls after getting convicted of a crime.
Authors also investigated the number of people who were removed from the voter rolls from 2017-2021 who had regained their voting rights and registered to vote once again by 2024. According to the study, 1,034 people who are Black reregistered to vote after they completed their sentence, about 8.3% of the total. That is less than the almost 13% of whites registered to vote after a criminal conviction.
The study suggested that the disparities could stem from disparities in the application of Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement law and uneven methods of voter file maintenance in the state.
“Regardless of the reason, the significant variation in county-level disenfranchisement rates calls for further investigation into how Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement law is being implemented at the local level,” the report said. “This is especially important given federal law that requires uniform implementation of state election laws across counties.”
‘It means so much’
Cheeks spent almost 40 years in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections after receiving a mandatory life sentence in 1985 for a robbery. Cheeks had prior convictions of forgery and assault, leading to the sentence but no one was physically injured. Cheeks spent 30 years working in the kitchen at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer without pay, according to Alabama Appleseed.
Cheeks was released in July 2022. His criminal convictions required him to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote, which he applied for and received from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Cheeks, with the help of supporters, then registered to vote with the Board of Registrars in Jefferson County and acquired full citizenship once again after spending nearly four decades incarcerated in Alabama’s prisons.
“It is more important now than it would have been in the first place,” Cheeks said of voting. “I have been so anxious over the years to vote. I have been hearing so much about voting, and I wanted to express my opportunity for the right to vote. It is granted to American citizens by right, and I wanted to do that. I am so thankful. It is a blessing, and it means so much.”
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Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.
The post Study: Alabama’s moral turpitude laws contribute to racial disenfranchisement disparities appeared first on alabamareflector.com
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
This content highlights issues of racial disparities and systemic barriers related to felony disenfranchisement in Alabama, focusing on the disproportionate impact on Black citizens. It emphasizes social justice concerns and critiques existing laws and their implementation, which aligns with a Center-Left perspective that advocates for voting rights expansion and racial equity. The tone is factual and empathetic, without overt partisan language, but the focus on structural inequalities and reform suggests a leaning toward progressive policy viewpoints.
News from the South - Alabama News Feed
Monroe County Football Coach speaks out, calls for more support for team
SUMMARY: Monroe County High School football coach Robert Wilkerson is urging more support from parents, alumni, and the community. Since starting in April, Wilkerson has faced challenges such as low game attendance, limited adult volunteers for filming and chain crew, and a lack of trainers. He publicly expressed concerns on Facebook, emphasizing the need for people to attend games and boost team morale. Wilkerson highlights issues like outdated training equipment and lack of pride in the school. He calls for increased community involvement through their “adopt a tiger” program and donations via an Amazon wish list to improve the team’s resources.
Head Coach Robert Wilkerson says building the team starts with more people attending games and helping the young players.
News from the South - Alabama News Feed
Alabama Lawmakers Threaten to Dismantle Athletic Association After New Rule | Sept. 1, 2025 | News 1
SUMMARY: Alabama lawmakers are challenging a new rule by the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) that sidelines certain high school athletes using the $7,000 tax credit under the CHOOSE Act. Senators and representatives argue the rule violates state law, which protects player eligibility and opposes restrictions impacting athletes’ ability to participate. They call for increased oversight of the AHSAA and suggest revising or repealing the CHOOSE Act. Concerns focus on fairness but emphasize that opportunities for student-athletes should not be compromised. Some lawmakers are even considering dismantling the AHSAA due to these controversial regulations.
High school athletes who transfer schools using financial aid like the CHOOSE Act are ineligible to play for one year, according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association.
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