Last summer, as Malachi Britt turned 12, his years of proving his maturity finally paid off. The youngest of four children, he was used to walking by himself to catch the school bus, routinely checking in with his mother after football practice at Lewis Frasier Middle School and completing his homework.
His responsibility earned him his first cell phone, a bittersweet gift because just after receiving it, Liberty County public schools announced the first ban of cell phones by students during school hours as the district sought to increase attention and test scores. Rather than showing off his device, Malachi joined the rest of the school’s students in locking their phones in secure pouches before the morning bell.
Earlier this spring, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law that scales the Liberty pilot project to ban personal devices for elementary and middle school students across the state. Yet interviews with five school officials, students and parents in Hinesville suggest that the tactic has had minimal success in meeting the educational goals in its first year.
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