teens smartphones

“There was this low-energy apathy and isolation,' he told the Wall Street Journal. At first, he thought it was his teaching, but he realized it was the phones. "This year something shifted, and it's just like they are numbing themselves, they are just checking out of society, they're just like can't get rid of it, they can't put it away,” he told KVOA.

Tucson biology teacher quits over students not being able to put down their phones

“Now, you can ask them, bug them, beg them, remind them and try to punish them and still nothing works,” Rutherford told the Wall Street Journal.

Students aren’t allowed to use phones in classes at Sahuaro, but that doesn’t stop them. So, it’s up to the teachers to enforce what feels unenforceable. He says that when he tries to take a phone away from a student they hold onto them for dear life. “That's what an alcoholic would do if you tried to take away their bottle,” he told them.

He likens his students' relationships with their phones to a severe addiction.

"Opioids, obviously a huge problem, cocaine heroin, all of those drugs, alcohol, it's all a big problem, but like sugar even greater than that and then phones even greater than that,” he told KVOA.

Mitchell Rutherford has taught high-school biology for 11 years. A millennial and digital native, he used to think technology had a place in the classroom and students could be taught to manage their phone use.

This year showed him the grim truth. 🔗https://t.co/dbXe4IoR0R pic.twitter.com/mSBkrRrUHS

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 22, 2024

He even attempted to give his students extra credit if they reduced their screen time. "Here's extra credit, let's check your screen time, let's create habits, let's do a unit on sleep and why sleep is important, and how to reduce your phone usage for a bedtime routine, and we talked about it every day and created a basket called phone jail,” he said.

But in the end, it was a losing battle for Rutherford and the phones have won.

In February, he told the school that he was leaving the teaching profession to preserve his well-being. "I have been struggling with mental health this year mostly because of what I identified as basically phone addiction with the students."

When asked how parents and school administrators can help fix this problem, his solution is simple: get kids off their phones. “As a society, we need to prioritize educating our youth and protecting our youth and allowing their brains and social skills and happiness to develop in a natural way without their phones,” he told KVOA.