Legislation has been introduced in Lansing to restrict the use of cell phones in schools after Governor Gretchen Whitmer proposed such rules during her State of the State address this week. However, state Representative Brad Paquette doesn’t think a statewide rule is the way to go.

Paquette tells us back when he was a teacher, his school developed an effective cell phone policy that appeared to be working.

“We actually created a system, a disciplinary system, that allowed children and young adults to be able to work toward using their cell phone correctly in class, outside of class, and it worked very effectively,” Paquette said.

Paquette says the district later banned the use of cell phones, which just meant kids got a lot of detention. He says that affected the school culture in a negative way.

“So I see legislating this and managing this across the state as pretty backward. I get where they’re coming from. Yes, cell phones in class could be very, very negative, but all these challenges present opportunities that I think can be beneficial when the kids and the teachers are brought in to find solutions.”

With everyone now in possession of a cell phone, Paquette says enforcement of broad policies on the devices can be a problem.

The legislation introduced this week would limit when students at different grade levels would be allowed to use their phones. Such use would all have to be outside of class.