In September, Windham High School teacher Alison O’Brien saw an unfamiliar sight during the first fire drill: students were talking to each other and laughing and chatting.
“It was such a nice change to see them socializing, as opposed to having their heads buried in their phones,” O’Brien said.
That at first unfamiliar sight is becoming more and more common as New Hampshire continues implementation of the bell-to-bell cellphone ban, signed into law by Governor Kelly Ayotte in 2025. Educators across the state are reporting noisy hallways and cafeterias and better student engagement.
“I think it’s one of the best things the Legislature or the governor has done for education in probably a long, long time,” said Brian Sutherland, a counselor at Plymouth Regional High School. Even a phone-free window for the school day gives students needed relief from the pull of their phones and social media.
O’Brien agreed: “This is a much bigger conversation than teachers or classrooms. Most people who are not around teenagers all day don’t realize how much they’re on their phone and how much it is impacting their development. It was just the constant distraction.”
The day we spoke with O’Brien, she had her 15-year-old students reading President Truman’s speech after he dropped the atomic bombs. It’s a heavy document with dense language, but they work their way through it. Previously, O’Brien noticed students would be distracted.
“If they’re constantly hearing a ding or feeling a buzz, they’re never allowing their brain to get to that place of deep critical thinking,” O’Brien explained.
“I totally get it. It’s lovely not having the kids on their phones, not having to nag them to get off their phones….but I am missing these phones like you can’t even believe. Not missing them for the reason the law was put in place. We used their phones as a tool in the art room every single day,” said Kingswood Regional High School art teacher Kristie Smith.
As an AP art teacher, Smith relied on students’ phones to document their work for portfolios and national competitions. The district has school-issued tablets, but she calls the devices glitchy and says critical apps, like PicCollage, haven’t been approved. Workarounds exist, she said, but they slow instruction and limit access.
“I wish there were exceptions to this law,” Smith said. “I’m just the classroom teacher. I’m just stuck.”
Portsmouth Middle School teacher Erin Bakkom is supportive of the law but acknowledges there have been some issues with implementation. The high school is so spread out that they don’t have lockers, so administrators first encouraged students to leave their phones in their car or with their first period teacher. They quickly learned students were not doing that.
“We know that they’re using them in the bathroom, we don’t police that, but if we see them, there are consequences,” Bakkom explained.
The primary issue O’Brien sees with the new cellphone restriction is implementation in her district, which basically asks kids nicely to put a phone away.
“Kids pretty quickly figured out that there were no real consequences,” O’Brien explained.
She points to neighboring Salem, where first offenses result in confiscation for the day and second offenses require a parent pickup. Monadnock Regional developed a similar policy with families and staff.
“Our procedures and administration took the reins for how it’s implemented. It took it off us, which was important because I can’t be an effective teacher if I have to be the cellphone police,” Melissa Alexander stated. “The only way this is successful, and the only way that it works, is that parents, administrators, and staff have to work together and they have to be supportive of the roles and the policy.”
That unity, Bakkom said, may finally be forming. Parents are increasingly wary of social media’s impact, and movements like “Wait Til 8th” – which encourages delaying smartphones – are gaining traction.
“It used to feel isolating,” Bakkom said. “Now parents are banding together. It’s the schools. It’s the state. We’re all recognizing what we need to do to do right by the kids.”
For Sutherland, the change has been profound, and it’s sparked bigger questions about screen time overall.
I know it’s one step at a time,” he said. “But I’m starting to get greedy now.”
“God knows we’re not united on much, but I think everybody has united that the cellphones for kids are not good at school,” Bakkom emphasized. “This is something we can all agree on.”
