Parents, if you want kids to be safe and successful in school, step away from your cell phone – yes, yours.

Heck, that applies to all Oregonians, not just parents. Kids copy what they see.

“The majority of social conflict [that teachers] see at school occurs as a result of students’ online social media use on their cell phones,” Ami Formica, co-founder of the Well Wired advocacy organization in Central Oregon, said Monday during a virtual town hall hosted by Reps. Emerson Levy, D-Bend, and Lisa Reynolds, D-Beaverton.

“Behavior issues, focus and attention problems, which teachers link directly back to phone use in schools, have ‘never been worse,’” Formica said.

“Phones in schools impact learning, academic performance and create conflict and make it nearly impossible for teachers to teach.”

Some states prohibit students from possessing or using cell phones in school. But don’t look to the 2025 Oregon Legislature to do so, according to lawmakers who participated in the town hall on Zoom. However attractive that approach might be, Oregon’s tradition of local control over schools makes it unlikely.

Among approaches legislators might try is requiring every school district to enact a strict policy on student cell phones, a policy that mitigates the harmful effects. Some already do. The Oregonian reported this week, “The North Clackamas School District will lock up students’ cellphones for the entire school day at all its middle and high schools, starting next fall.”

Two of the nation’s largest districts – Los Angeles and New York City – are moving toward bans. Meanwhile, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently said Congress should require a warning label on social media sites because, “social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum underscored that reality during the town hall: “We are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis among our youth, and there is now undeniable evidence that excessive cell phone and social media use is significantly contributing to the crisis.”

Bear in mind that Oregon already ranks last nationally for mental health care for youth.

Nationally, 72% of high school teachers say students being distracted by cell phones is a major problem in their classroom, according to a Pew Research Center survey last fall. However, 60% percent also say phone policies are difficult to enforce.

Participants in the town hall stressed the importance of building broad support for cell phone restrictions – and involving students – instead of leaving the burden on individual teachers.

“Anecdotally, when I hear about schools or school events where phones are not allowed, the students are thrilled to have a break from checking their texts and their social media,” Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford, said in an email afterward.

“My goal is to help them have a break from their phones without their having to be the ones responsible for putting them down. I’m happy to be the adult in the room and to play the role of ‘bad guy’ so they don’t have to do that all on their own.”

Rep. Courtney Neron, D-Wilsonville, who chairs the Oregon House Education Committee, said she’s hearing from students that they want boundaries, “And I think that that’s been a really profound dynamic about this.”

Rep. Emily McIntire, R-Eagle Point, who is on the Education Committee and her local school board, added that a lot of districts probably are waiting for the state to take charge so they won’t be the bad guy.

Ninety-three percent of parents surveyed by Well Wired strongly favor a phone-free school policy.

In daily life, that’s not always the case.

“The biggest pushback we get is actually from parents and not children. And I understand that. I am an anxious parent, like, I get it,” Rep. Levy said. “But when I just look at the data, I really adjusted my thinking.”

Rep. Reynolds, a pediatrician, experiences the youth and parental concerns first-hand: “I often have patients break out in tears when we talk about taking away their phones – and parents looking very nervous about doing something.

“What this has said to me over and over again is they do have a certain addiction.”