Regional events address digital distractions
aria Gonzalez has been a school psychologist for Rochester City Schools for more than two decades, and she’s seen first-hand the damage cellphones have had on her students. “I was there way before the pandemic, and I saw the incredible shift in the social skills of students,” said Gonzalez, Rochester Teachers Association. “The level of impulsivity now that I see, was not seen before. It’s just constantly reacting, reacting, reacting, with no pause for anything.”
Gonzalez was one of a host of educators and administrators who met as part of Rochester Disconnected, the first in a series of regional conferences designed to explore the impact of cellphones, social media and technology on children and learning. The events, which also took place in Syracuse, Plattsburgh, Western New York, and on Long Island, highlighted the common concerns educators have about cellphones in school.
Educators and health professionals agreed that there is a causal relationship between social media and the mental health crisis among students.
Dr. Dennis Kuo, a pediatrician who serves as chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Rochester says the number of doctor visits related to social media is unprecedented.
“I’ve been in practice 25 years, and this is a big issue in the field of pediatrics. The shift in what we do in the pediatrics field has been immense,” Kuo said.
The Plattsburgh Disconnected event was co-hosted by Shine On, a nonprofit dedicated to raising confident, resilient girls by teaching them media literacy, communication and character education. Colleen Lemza, founder of Shine On, a SUNY Plattsburgh professor and member of the United University Professions – Plattsburgh chapter, said that problems are worse than people realize. “The bullying is just leaps and bounds beyond what it used to be,” she said, noting suicide, self-harm and depression rates are all on the rise.
According to the CDC, the suicide rate for boys has increased 91 percent since 2010; for girls its increased 167 percent.
At the Plattsburgh event, educators also talked about the benefits of restricting cellphone use in school. “When we banned cellphones at our high school our discipline referrals went down 65 percent,” said David Rounds, president of the Bethlehem TA. The counterargument, that cellphones keep students safe, has been debunked, he said. “I trust the FBI and the state police and our local police, who tell us that access to the phones makes the situation more dangerous.”
Safety officials at the Buffalo-area Disconnected event agreed that phones detract from student safety. “As a school resource officer, I would feel much more safe if we had cellphones out of our schools, yes,” said David Jarczyk, West Seneca. “There’re kids so distracted by phones, they walk into me — a walking police officer — in the hallway.”
In September 2024, NYSUT convened a conference to discuss the harmful impacts of cellphones and social media on students. The issue was brought to the forefront in January when Gov. Hochul proposed $13.5 million for school districts to implement bell-to-bell cellphone restrictions as part of her executive budget. According to the proposal, each school district would come up with their own policy. Learn more at nysut.org/Disconnected.