Utah lawmaker wants to crack down on cell phones in schools, says too many exposed to porn

ALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) -- A Utah lawmaker wants to crack down on cell phone use in classrooms.

Rep. Susan Pulsipher, R-South Jordan, says every school district needs to have a policy in place when it comes to the use of electronic devices at school, and she says they need to make sure teachers, students and parents are trained on it.

So, she introduced HB 237 on the house floor on Friday.

“We want to make sure that all the students know what that policy is and know what happens if they don’t follow the policy,” said Pulsipher. “Certainly it can be a distraction in the classroom.”

But Pulsipher says this bill is not just about putting an end to distractions for teachers. She says it came about as a result of students downloading and viewing inappropriate material.

She says school WiFi networks used to filter that, but now kids don’t use the school's WiFi.

“Technology has changed and with that change has come personal devices students bring and they don’t connect to the WiFi at school so they don’t have those filters,” she said. “There are too many reports of students being exposed to pornography in schools from someone's cell phone. That was one of the primary reasons this came about.”

The bill is just at the very beginning stages and is expected to go before a committee meeting next.

Source