Phones, laptops, AirPods, and more are being banned at all public schools in New York.

Governor Hochul’s proposed policy to ban all personal devices - including smartphones, smartwatches, AirPods, laptops, and tablets - from the first bell to the last is not just overreach. It’s dangerous, inflexible, and disconnected from students’ real lives.

As students, we fear not being able to contact our families in an emergency.
We fear losing the tools we use to manage anxiety, organize ourselves, or translate information.
We fear being treated as distractions rather than human beings.

We’re not asking for total freedom - we’re asking for respect, nuance, and trust.

We demand that the state: 

Let schools and teachers set their own reasonable device policies.
Allow access to phones and AirPods during lunch, free periods, and emergencies.
Differentiate between device types: laptops used for work ≠ texting in class.
Create opt-outs for students with parental permission or special circumstances.
Teach digital responsibility, instead of pretending tech doesn’t exist.
This ban is not preparation for the real world. It's punishment disguised as policy.

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