Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Promotes Phone-Free School Initiative

you can have a se you know it's a privilege for me to serve in a community where families and schools value the health and safety of students above all things that's why yesterday when I shared with the staff that know students would have cell phones accessible in class they cheered that's why when I emailed parents I had overwhelming support um but nothing inspired me more than one of the emails that I received from a family family um Reese Ling and his family is with us today Stephanie red anxious generation I don't know where you are but they have their two children there in the back if you stand up Rees and Stephanie and Ruby and Nora they're blessed to have three girls in their family which is why this conversation so important but what I was inspired by was the dad's going to start a dad's girl seven Group of Seven men where they're going to set norms for their girls and delay cell phone uses and so I know this I know that together our communities working with our schools we can dramatically improve the mental health of our students so thank you family for working with us it is now my uh distinct honor to introduce the 47th governor of Arkansas she has Sarah Huckaby Sanders has the distinction of being the state's first female governor and the youngest governor in the US since taking the office of Governor she has committed a number of resources to education with a particular focus on student mental health which leads us here today Governor Sanders recently invited all the Arkansas districts to participate in a pilot and Bonville school is lucky to be one of those pilot schools it's my belief that this work will impact not only the learning environment but more importantly the emotional well-being of our youth please welcome Governor Sarah huby Sanders thank you thank you and good afternoon it is uh great to be in a school before all of uh the excitement of the new year begins and thank you Dr Jones for the introduction but more importantly thank you for your leadership uh here in this area and frankly the impact that you've had on the entire state for being willing to participate your district has been a great partner in our work to promote phone free schools and we're very grateful for the work that you're doing principal mcalli thank you for hosting us here today you and I have both read Jonathan ha's book The anxious generation in fact you liked the book so much that you sent a memo to every member of your staff encouraging them to read it I liked the book so much I sent it to every single legislature in the state of Arkansas as well as every Governor around the country maybe we should start a book club and of course I want to say a huge thank you to several of our legislators who are here in the audience who have helped our state facilitate phone free schools program if you guys don't mind standing up and being recognized there are a number of our state legislators that are here today we're also joined by superintendent from across Northwest Arkansas as well as several teachers and parents from around the area I know everyone is busy getting ready for the school year so we appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedules to be here and to join us I know because I'm getting ready at my house as well in total we have about 180 Arkansas school districts which make up 75% of our state that have signed up for the phone free initiative that we launched only a few weeks ago it's been right at a month since we announced it so it just shows the level of enthusiasm that we're seeing both from teachers and parents from all all over Arkansas I'm here today as one of them not just as the governor but more importantly the mom of three young kids Scarlet Huck and George I have a seventh grader a fifth grader and a third grader and so like all parents I want my kids to know how to responsibly use the internet before they get online I also don't want phones to distract from class time or in-person socialization I see the impact it is having in my own home and across our state our phone free school program is a great first step to promoting it Statewide and it could not get here fast enough because our country has been experimenting with unregulated smartphone use for more than a decade and unfortunately the results have been absolutely devastating for our young people since smartphones and social media became widespread suicide rates have tripled among young team self harm among girls in particular is up 200% and teenage depression is up 150% math reading and science scores have dropped since smartphones became common not just in America but across the entire developed World alienation is on the rise now let me be clear I'm not saying that smartphones and social media are all bad they can certainly be an extreme extremely useful tool when used correctly but the average American teen now spends nearly 5 hours a day on social media any parent and any teacher knows that is way too much both as a concerned parent and as governor of Arkansas I knew that we had to do something to change the trajectory of what is happening here to our students that's why this June I gathered a group of superintendents to discuss the mental health crisis that is facing our kids based on those conversations we rolled out the P pilot program that we are here today to kick off we offered districts funding not only to purchase pouches pouches that allow kids to safely store their phones during class time but also we added an additional program I recently had a chance to have a conversation with the CEO of Yonder who is here with us today they make pouches that allow student students to hold on to their phones during the day but without being able to use them one of the things that he said that really stuck with me that I think is important for not only us leading this program to recognize but our teachers and parents this isn't about taking anything away this is about giving students the freedom to enjoy a phonefree education I think that's one of the most important takeaways and certainly one of the most uh important messages for us to communicate to our young people our pilot program also provides grants to support telemental Health Services which is especially important in the areas of our state that don't have nearby mental health professionals I know that it will have a positive effect on our schools and I can say that with complete and total confidence because several schools have already launched their own phone food programs this school year and the results have been better than we could have ever imagined under principal Jonathan Guthrie Bentonville West High School piloted their program last year and saw immediate Improvement verbal and physical aggression offenses fell 57% drug related offenses dropped 51% and 86% of teachers saw increased student engagement 77% saw improvements in classroom Behavior if that's not enough to encourage everyone I don't know that we can find any statistics that will it's incredibly compelling but even more so are the stories that we've heard from different teachers and parents that have participated in the programs one teacher mentioned that before this program students who finished class early would sit at their desks heads down scrolling on their phones now they actually talk to one another socialize a guidance counselor had a student come to her and actually thanked her for the program she said the girl didn't have a smartphone and felt pushed and bullied by her friends to get one now that students keep them tucked away during class time she doesn't feel the same pressure to the parents in the crowd you and I remember when we were in school before there were smartphones it was undistracted classrooms laughter in the hallways and talking in the cafeteria for a lot of kids school is not like that anymore but it doesn't have to be that way we can and we will do better I want to thank all of the teachers the administrators and the parents that are here today who have embraced this program with open arms it's good for our kids it's good for our schools and most importantly it's imperative for our state I'll now turn it over to secretary Aliva who has played a big role in helping shape this program and has been such an incredible leader on so many things and we are so thankful and lucky to have him with that I will turn it over and let him tell us a little bit more about the program thank you all so much good afternoon thank you Governor Sanders Dr Jones the there's some other superintendents here as well as our state board of education and this is an initiative that's easy to stand behind and people have been begging for support around this initiative to focus on letting our teachers teach and not be distracted by being cell phone police for a long time but we wouldn't be here without Governor Sanders leadership and and Dr Jones uh especially because when when we meet and collaborate our governor wanted to meet with superintendents from around the state and say what can we help do do support for you as a state that you're seeing in children that that we can lean on because I'm really concerned about some of the stuff I've read Around the anxious generation I'm really concerned about the demographics and the numbers we're seeing with the number of students that have acting on behaviors what can we do we had a robust Roundtable discussion and it became very clear that our schools want access to more highquality Mental Health Services and they want us to help support them with high quality mental health education but the cell phones unanimously across the the board with all the school districts are an issue and they said if there's anything you can do to stand behind us and support us with a pilot or initiative we want to do it so not only are we working with some school districts uh and I call some of them our early on boarders to say let's do a pilot let's do it right we're actually doing a actual Empirical research study we partnered with the University of Arkansas and the office of educational Office of Education policy and the the the folks that are implementing the pilot program with Fidelity they're going to be surveying students they're going to be surveying parents they're going to track data and they're going to conduct a yearlong peer-reviewed research article so we're going to measure impact so at one point we're going to come and be able to stand stand in front of everybody at at at this time next year and say Here's evidence of what this program did or maybe that it didn't do but I can tell you just even being right here in in the Middle School talking to some teachers they they are so excited that we are as a state supporting and standing behind this initiative and I was talking to Middle School literacy teachers and I was talking to middle school counselors and they they were very clear we see problems with our students writing in the Middle School level because they want to write text on a research paper and that's not acceptable they're telling me Point Blank our kids aren't communicating the way they used to like this addictiveness to social media and cell phones is an issue and we need to protect our teaching time because we have high expectations for our young scholars and uh as Governor standard said we have some schools that are already back in session and I and I've been in contact with superintendents who who have even sent me pictures of students at lunch and said look not a cell phone in sight kids are actually talking to each other and being kids and he even said it's almost like the students were were relieved that we told them to put it away and we know that we're going to get the same uh results and the same reactions as we work with school districts um like Bentonville here all across the state so thank you governor for your leadership superintendent school board members thank you for standing behind um the courage to to be part of such a bold initiative thank you [Applause] good afternoon Governor Sanders secretary Oliva Dr Jones and our many other distinguished guests it's an honor to welcome you to Artisan middle school as we work together to advocate for the mental health of all students not only in Bentonville not only in Northwest Arkansas but across the entire State several months ago when I read Jonathan Heights the anxious generation I kept thinking about what I could do as a school leader and after one quick call to the governor here we are today but really uh it is so encouraging to think of this pilot program becoming a model for other states around the country too and so we're very happy to be part of it I'm proud to represent artistan Middle School we think of ourselves as a family and our vision statement building a legacy of kindness and Community speaks to our schools 30 year history in Bentonville and our hopes for future alumni in any family or Community Trust is essential and a phone-free school environment will grow trust between students and staff at Artisan we strive to create a welcoming environment and we want to be there to support students however we can for students who have phones our hope is that they will now more often turn to trusted teachers and counselors and administrators when they need help help and in this way I think that this pilot program will also serve to strengthen that partnership between home and school yesterday our school district was fortunate enough to hear from author and researcher Shan AAR who reminded us that social connections are a significant predictor of happiness in life going phone free at school will facilitate more of these positive social connections with others I'm grateful that my school and my district are able to participate in this pilot program and since I imagine that for the Educators out here like me you think of next week as the real first day of the year I wish you a happy New Year and all the best in the weeks to come thank you all for coming today and this concludes our event thank you