Schools in US crack down on smartphones as students more 'glued' to devices

In St Louis city, Gateway Middle School will adopt a zero-tolerance cellphone, headphones and earbuds policy that bars students from accessing social media on campus. — Image by master1305 on Freepik

ST LOUIS: American teenagers spend upwards of eight hours a day on their phones. Local schools want to make sure none of that time is spent during class.

Several St Louis-area school districts have started banning all or most cellphone use after previous policies and student codes failed to stop in-class screen scrolling. Punishments for violating these new rules range from verbal warnings to out-of-school suspensions.