MARTIN COUNTY, Fla — One week until your kids head back to the classroom, and they may be greeted with tougher consequences for using cellphones in class.
Last year, Florida law banned students from having phones out during instruction time. But is that enough?
WPTV education reporter Stephanie Susskind is examining which of our local school districts are cracking down on those who break that law.
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"I think it will give you more incentive to not bring it out. Keep the honest people honest," said high school student Carter Scott.
Scott knows how much cellphones can creep into the school day.
"I think for a lot of us, we just think we don't have to pay attention sometimes, whether we are good or bad students. We tend to do that sometimes," Scott said.
And Martin County has had enough.
The school district is launching new cellphone and wireless device consequences. If you have it out at any time during the school day — including in the classroom, hallways, or at lunch — it will be taken away and only returned to your parent or guardian.
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"I've said it takes one text message to ruin your whole day," said Superintendent Michael Maine of the Martin County School District.
Maine wants to dial back those distractions.
"Do you think this is gonna work?" Susskind asked Maine.
"I think if we are consistent as a district and every single school is being consistent throughout, we will be successful with this," Maine answered. "But it's gonna take not just us as a school district. I need the help from parents."
Maine said that when a phone is taken away, the teacher or staff member will bring it to the front office, where it will be documented and locked up.
"I'm hoping it really will bring back some normalcy to socialization and conversations around the lunch table and in the courtyard," Maine said.
Retired Martin County teacher and former union leader Karen Resciniti worries about the burden on staff members and making sure every situation is handled the same way.
"We've had incidents in the past where the teacher took away the phone. But then, when do they give it to the administrators, right?" Resciniti said. "Do they have to go during their lunch? Do they have to go during their contracted day? Is someone going to pick it up?"
Not all districts are tackling the technology the same way.
Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties said they'll maintain current policy aligning with state law, which bans cellphones during instruction time unless a teacher allows it.
"We don’t want to arbitrarily ban cell phones, because we just don’t feel in our district that we have the need to," said Dr. Jon Prince, the superintendent of St. Lucie Public Schools.
The School District of Indian River County said it focused on enforcing the law last year.
"We were drastically able to increase the amount of time our teachers can be providing quality instruction because they weren't cellphone police," Superintendent Dr. David Moore said. "So some of our success we had last year we contribute to cracking down on cellphones."
In Martin County, Maine said all principals have been trained on how to implement this new policy with their staff.
"Cellphones are increasing bullying. Cellphones are increasing online harassment. Cellphones are creeping in all kinds of inappropriate things that our students are doing," Maine said. "And we need to regain control of that. And this is a step toward helping to mitigate that."
Time will tell if Martin County's move makes a difference.
"Some kids are gonna have a hard time," Scott said. "It's gonna happen. But I think some of us will be fine."
Repeated violations in Martin County will lead to progressive discipline and could even result in suspension. The new policy also applies to AirPods and using smartwatches.