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Students tell House Education Committee H.54 would overreach; urge school-level phone policies
Summary
Students testified May 2 before the House Education Committee against H.54, a proposed cell-phone restriction for schools, saying existing school rules or locally tailored policies better balance safety, instructional needs and students' ability to contact caregivers or document incidents.
Members of the House Education Committee heard student testimony May 2 opposing H.54, the proposed “cell phone–free schools” bill, with several students saying schools—not the Legislature—should set phone rules.
Manny Van Fleet, an eighth-grade student at U-32 in East Montpelier and a member of his school’s student council, told the committee he and peers believe “taking away phones should be something that the school should do rather than something that a law should dictate.”
The students said the bill’s effects would reach beyond classroom distractions: they described phones as tools for safety, for contacting family or employers after practices, and for academic tasks such as taking photos of experiments, using calculator or art apps. Eddie McGrath, a junior at Montpelier High School, warned the bill’s draft definition of…
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