No cellphones in school. They’re a distraction and kids are spending too much time on screens. Take them away or lock them up. Problem solved.

It’s not that easy, though. When the local school district recently made the announcement that they’d be banning phone usage, except for between classes and lunch, and also prohibiting the use of headphones/earbuds and smartwatches, my kids did the expected grumbling.

“Back in my day, we survived without them,” I said, doing my best boomer impersonation. “Yeah, well back in your day kids weren’t getting shot in school regularly,” was the quick response from the peanut gallery.

Do you know what a kick in the gut it is when that is what your kid’s first response is when you suggest taking away their phone? Not that they’re going to lose social media time, or not be able to contact friends, or any of the other stupid stuff kids (and adults) use their phones for, but that their lifeline in a school shooting will not be available.

We could go down the rabbit hole of causation and correlation on cellphones and school shootings, but it’s not likely to be helpful to either side. What bothers me is that the knee-jerk response to a perceived problem is: “Just take it away.” “Banning it will solve the problem.”

I’ve been a parent and worked with school-age children long enough to know that all that has really been accomplished is that now teachers will have to wear phone police hats. And now the kids have the challenge of figuring out how to sneak around to use their phones/earbuds/etc.

In discussing this situation with other students and parents, another comment was made: “Just give it a few weeks, and everyone will go back to not caring.” While I don’t necessarily condone that statement, past practice leads me to believe it probably has merit.

Ostensibly, this change is to help with student mental health and reduce screen time. Considering the amount of time students are expected to spend on their Chromebooks during the school day, or when doing homework, that argument seems a little flimsy. One of the single most frustrating experiences I’ve had while trying to help my kids with homework is reading textbooks online. It lasted about a week and I broke down and bought textbooks myself. Reading a novel on an electronic device is one thing. Trying to read a science text, when the screen may not encompass an entire chart or diagram, or where a photo is on the opposite page of the text that is explaining it creates new complications.

I am all for limiting screen time, but screen time is screen time, whether it’s a phone or a computer being used to teach. If we are serious about limiting that time, let’s get away from the electronic classroom as well.

While some of the language of the state bill that provides funding for this policy indicates that it is not intended to “ban” cellphones, rather it hopes to assist schools in implementing policies to limit access to phones or other forms of social media during the school day. However, the overall intent of the policy is to assist with student mental health. Besides, social media doesn’t stop because kids aren’t using it, and it’s waiting for them the minute that bell rings.

What bothers me most about this type of policy is that kids are not learning how to manage or regulate their screen time. The second school is over, the kids will re-engage with their screens and social media, and it may prove an even greater distraction as they have to catch up with everything they’ve missed while they’ve been in school. Social media also means that when you leave school, you don’t leave the bullies behind. For eight hours a day, a student may get a reprieve, but then be flooded with it in a uncontrolled environment.

I don’t have the answers, and of course, what works in my household may not work in every other house. For most of their lives, my kids had two extremely engaged parents breathing down their necks most of the time. But, over the years, ones that included electronic devices, phones, gaming PCs, guns and driving cars, I’ve found, through a lot of trial and error, that teaching the kids how to use all those things properly and in the right times and places has gone a lot farther toward them using them correctly and safely than depriving them or taking those things away from them.

Recently, A and I were packing his clothing for college. Since he’s been wearing a uniform since kindergarten, he hadn’t considered that he no longer needs to wear khakis and a button down every day. He rather sheepishly asked me, “Well, what do I wear?” It gave us a good laugh. Of course A knows how to dress himself, and even within the confines of a dress code, he had managed to maintain a level of individuality. But for so long, he hadn’t had to think about what to wear every day, that when faced with that realization, he was momentarily confused.

What tools are we providing kids with during the day to help them learn how to navigate this world? To help them understand just how damaging screen time can be? Are we teaching them how to report bullying or other inappropriate use of social media? Sure, we all know that a lot of that is a parent’s job, but the reality is that many parents, or grandparents, raising children these days don’t have the tools to help kids themselves.

I hope there is more coming. The funding for this program seems pretty significant. Hopefully it goes beyond padding the pockets of the companies that make cellphone storage bags.