Peyton Stanley News Today

In Florida, a US school district banned smartphones entirely. Teachers seem to love it and students are pretty OK with it, too.

One afternoon in late September, hundreds of students at Timber Creek High School in Orlando poured into the campus’s sprawling central courtyard to hang out and eat lunch. For members of an extremely online generation, their activities were decidedly analog.

In Florida, of all places, where government typically meddles in public schools with bad intentions and even worse results, they may actually have done a good thing for a change.

Schools in Orlando took a tougher approach than a new state law required. Student engagement increased. So did the hunt for contraband phones.

The ban went into effect in September, and has prohibited pupils in Orlandos Orange County public schools system from using their devices since.

Like many exasperated parents, public schools across the United States are adopting increasingly drastic measures to try to pry young people away from their cellphones.

Two Lugoff-Elgin High School students, Peyton Stanley and Lauren Haskell, recently won first place in a statewide competition sponsored by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and were awarded $250 each.