Birmingham parents upset over state phone ban for students in school

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (FOX 2) - Just a day after Michigan's phone ban in schools went into effect, parents in the Birmingham Public School District sounded off against those changes.

Big picture view:

Birmingham Public Schools are planning to implement a bell-to-bell phone ban. Meaning students cannot have their phones or any personal device from the time that first bell rings at the beginning of the day until that last bell.

Some parents aren’t too happy about that.

What they're saying:

"I want to make it very clear to you I am one hundred percent with phones being put away during instructional times. I don’t want my daughter to text me," said parent Lutz Lawton. "That’s not what this is about. But during her lunch if she needs to check in with me or if she has to communicate some type of change I don’t see the problem in that. I don’t feel that the work is being done to show how they’re going to implement it, what’s going to be required if a student has a phone, what are the repercussions. I don’t have any of that information."

Lawton told FOX 2 back in June the superintendent said high school students would be allowed to have their phones during passing time and lunch. But that has since changed. They now have the same rules as K-8 students. Now more than 130 concerned parents have joined a Facebook group and plan to speak out at tonight's board meeting.

"This is not a protest. We won’t be coming there with signs. We’re not against the district. We’re not anti anything other than please listen to us, please hear us, please let our voices be heard, and we’re asking them to reconsider the vote," said Lawton.

The other side:

FOX 2 reached out to Birmingham Public Schools for comment but have not heard back. That meeting is happening here at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

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