On July 1, 2025, the State of Florida passed House Bill 1105, which restricts the use of cellphones in school across all grade levels, kindergarten through 12th grade. This bill forces K-8 students to power off their phone at the beginning of the school day and have it stowed away in the classroom or their backpacks. It also compels students in high school to silence and store their phones away during instructional times, but, allows them to use it during passing periods and lunch.
The State of Florida enacted this law aiming to help students concentrate better on academics, and the only way to successfully achieve this was to reduce the use of one of the biggest distractions in the classroom today: cellphones.
Prior to these restrictions, the administration hadn’t implemented the cellphone “parking lot” system. Now, in almost every classroom, students place their phone into a pouch with many pockets- each pocket to store their phone. This system limits students’ temptations to grab their phone by keeping them out of reach during class time.
This new regulation is associated with certain benefits as well, such as increased socialization amongst students noticed by faculty here at Robinson. For instance, Buffy Vassey, the pre-IB AP lang teacher for sophomores, noticed some positive increases in interaction with the limitation of phones in her classes.
“The natural tendency for kids is if there’s downtime, it’s picking up the phone, not interacting, and now the natural inclination is without the phone. So, there’s more interaction, which I think is essential for teenagers,” Vassey said.
While it’s clear to teachers that the new restriction of phones allows students to focus more on their surroundings and schoolwork, the passage of this legislation also raises concerns for students when an emergency situation comes up.
Holly Houston (‘28) shares her worry of not having a proper way to communicate to others if an emergency arises.
“There’s no way for me to contact my parents or emergency services because it (cellphone) will be off. So, it’ll take a little longer, and it doesn’t provide me the comfort and safety that it usually would in an emergency circumstance,” Houston says.
Cellphones are commonly relied on to contact families and authorities during emergencies, so when turned off it poses concerns to many towards the ability to obtain assistance if needed.
As the change takes effect students and faculty here at Robinson, along with schools across Florida, integrate the new rules daily, observing how the new adjustments effect the school day.
