Skip to main content
Somewhere in Oregon, a teenager has made an absolutely ruthless TikTok roasting the governor for banning cellphones in schools. But we don’t have the personnel available to transcribe all that, so you’re going to have to settle for reading posts from some adults telling the children they are wrong. Last week WW interviewed five students about Gov. Tina Kotek’s bell-to-bell cellphone ban (“Left on Read,” WW, July 9). Students were largely supportive of limiting phone use on school grounds but expressed doubts about whether the ban would really improve their academic achievement or mental health. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Talbot Wallace, via Facebook: “It’s a step in the right direction. Have you researched or spoken to an educator in the past ten years? Cell phones are huge distractions in the classroom. Any assistance in creating a less distracting environment for better education should be met with applause, not critique. Sorry not sorry...But I don’t really care what the teenagers think of it...They are not going to like it because they are teenagers.”
Ben, via wweek.com: “Seems to me the governor’s cell phone ban is like Whack-a-Mole. Many high school students have a district-provided Chromebook. Tech-savvy students will find a way to message and access social media from a Chromebook.”
jtb2025, via Bluesky: “Short-term pain for long-term gain. This is partly a battle against addiction.”
Slopaganda Podcast, via Twitter: “We all know it’s about protecting teachers from being held accountable for how they abuse students. Just ask any kid in St. Helens, where they still keep covering up how many predators have hurt how many students.”
Oregonizers, via Facebook: “Kotek is completely clueless as to how important it is that our kids can reach us in an emergency.”
Megan Katherine, via Facebook: “I won’t be ok with this unless my kids’ school can guarantee their safety. And they can’t.”
not a californian, via wweek.com: “While I have a hard time faulting these kids for displaying pro-social impulses and wanting to fit in with their peers, I have no qualms about faulting the adults, educators, legislators, and corporations who continue to indulge humanity’s worst impulses under the guise of free expression and techno-optimism. The argument that phones in schools can be a lifeline during outbreaks of physical violence or gun violence is a particularly ghoulish talking point; thirty years of incessant big-tech propaganda has completely unmoored us from all sense of right and wrong. But hey, at least we created insane amounts of shareholder value along the way. Thanks, Section 230!
“The onus should be upon parents not to allow their children to possess smartphones while underage and to enforce that social norm to their parent peers. Sadly most adults seem to be addicted to their own devices and therefore cannot be trusted to model responsible behavior to their children or their peers. I’m not a Kotek fangirl by any means but she is 100% right on this issue.”
oregoner, in reply: “You clearly don’t have a teenager. We didn’t even let our kids watch television until they were 2 years old. But as they get older, your strategy shifts (or at least it should), and you’re no longer protecting them from the world, and instead trying to teach them to navigate the world. If you want them to have a healthy relationship with the digital world, they won’t learn that if you’re only teaching abstinence.”
Harmony Keane, via Facebook: “If only those kids knew about the fun times of using the school pay phone at lunchtime to call radio stations and request our fave songs! It was the simple things that brought us joy back in the day. Now they have the world at their fingertips yet are more anxious and depressed than ever.”
SpeakingDaTruth, via wweek.com: “Sounds like we’re too late. These kids are already too far gone if text messages are so integral to their ‘mental health.’”
Real Tony Clifton, in reply: “Well, we’re pounding away on a message board under made-up names. Maybe we’re too far gone.”
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to:
P.O. Box 10770
Portland, OR 97296
Email: amesh@wweek.com
