(The Center Square) – A bill that would ban cellphone use for Georgia high school students from “bell to bell” passed the Senate on Monday and was sent to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
“This bill is one of the more important bills that will pass this year for our kids,” said Sen. Shawn Still, R-Suwanee, when presenting the legislation. “Every single parent, unanimously, every teacher and everyone else out there, has said this is the best thing we can do for them and their future success.”
An amendment by Atlanta Democrat RaShaun Kemp failed that would have allowed students to keep their phones and put them away when in the classroom.
“High school students are not elementary school students, are not middle school students,” Kemp said. “We are teaching them to become adults. Many of them have jobs, responsibilities and also children. And so, I do not believe we should be forcing a 17-year-old, 18-year-old to have to go without their phones a whole eight hours.”
Kemp’s amendment failed. Passage was 52-0.
The House passed the bill 145-20 on Feb. 24.
No one spoke in opposition to the bill at the Senate Children and Families Committee last week. Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods attended the meeting in support of the bill.
“We’ve heard this is a cellphone ban but I would say this is not a cellphone ban, it is actually a student liberation bill,” Woods said. “It gives them freedom back to to build relationships. It gives them freedom back to build academic time and again, it allows them to graduate even stronger.”
