Students starting school next week in Barry County may feel like they have been trapped in the Stone Age.

Surrounded by technology districts offer today — such as Chromebooks for every student and many classrooms sporting smart boards — the most ubiquitous device has been banned.

Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a bill this year banning student cell phone use during school hours, and I could not agree with the new law more.

Back in 2006, when I graduated high school, I had a cell phone. It was a little Alltel flip phone — no camera, no games, limited minutes and a fee for every text. About the only thing I used it for during the school day was to text my friends, hiding the phone under my desk and using T9 texting blindly so I wouldn’t get caught.

Those were the early days of cell phones. Hand a Gen Z kid such a device, and I bet they would hand it right back.

The first iPhone was released in 2007. Now, 18 years later, it is almost unrecognizable. In under two decades, the pace of technology has been so fast that even I, as a millennial, sometimes struggle to keep up.

Forget T9 texting — kids today can text photos or videos, FaceTime (not even a word back in 2006), AirDrop and more. With these abilities at their fingertips, the opportunity for distraction, or to bully a classmate, is greater than ever.

My take on cell phones in schools comes down to that — remove the device, remove the opportunity.

A big part of my stance is rooted in watching “Childhood 2.0” last year. The eye-opening documentary dove into the dangers of unfettered internet access and how devices can be used for bullying throughout the school day.

Threats and bullying sound less like, “Meet me behind the cafeteria after school,” and more like continuous dings from texts or social media comments, with no face-to-face consequences. Not only is the child being bullied suffering from anxiety, but the bully is also very likely not getting much out of class.

Remove the device, remove the opportunity.

Superintendents in our area agree. Limiting cell phone use during the school day is expected to have a positive effect. Less opportunity for distraction, they hope, will equate to greater learning and attentiveness in class.

Ultimately, the argument boils down to this: What good comes from allowing cell phone access during the school day? I struggle to find an answer.

Cassville already had a cell phone ban in place at its primary, intermediate and middle schools. This year, at the high school, officials will use Yondr pouches to limit access to devices while still allowing students to carry them.

It’s a fair solution, given the busy lives of students who participate in extracurricular activities and may need phones to contact parents or guardians after school. During school hours, though, the main office phone should do just fine.

My daughter is entering fifth grade and has a cell phone. Because of the intermediate school ban, her phone, if she needs to take it for an after-school reason, stays in her locker during the day.

Could there be a benefit to her having it at lunch to talk to me or her mom if there is an issue? Possibly. But I’ve heard enough stories about who said what about whom and who didn’t play with whom during recess to see how a mid-day conversation could increase anxiety, not lessen it.

School is a big social experiment. Kids have to work out how to interact with their peers and superiors in positive ways, and eliminating cell phone use will force that face-to-face interaction we are slowly losing.

Go look at some of the comments on our Facebook page to see how that can play out among adults. People tend to be a lot braver when the person they are insulting is not standing in front of them.

Banning cell phones is one tool schools can use to eliminate this type of destructive communication among our children.

In my mind, that positive outcome outweighs any negative.

Kyle Troutman has served as editor of the Cassville Democrat since 2014 and owner/ publisher since 2023. He was named William E. James/Missouri Outstanding Young Journalist for daily newspapers in 2017, and he is a three-time ISWNE Golden Dozen award winner. He may be reached at 417-847-2610 or ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com.