On July 9, 2025 Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Senate Bill 1481 taking effect in the 2025-2026 school year. This bill implements a statewide ban of personal electronic device use by students during the school day. While the North Kansas City School District has had a policy restricting cell phone usage for several years, the new legislation has made the district stricter with its rules. Instead of a few short periods where students can access their phones during the day, such as passing time or lunch, students are forbidden from accessing their phones from 7:43 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.
The lack of access to phones reduced distractions from students’ school days. Phones and other personal devices, however, are not the only thing that entertains students during the school day.
Senior Charlotte Crane said, “I like to make bracelets in my free time during class. It started as an AVID assignment and I really liked it so I kept making them.”
There are many things that students can do in their free time, varying from activities on the computers to creative things like crafts or writing.
“I like to write when I’m done with classwork,” senior Zoe Rech said. “I’ll write about how my day has been, or I’ll come up with fictional stories and characters to put in different situations.”
Others enjoy more educational ways to fill downtime.
Senior Donovan Goodman said, “When I’m done with my work, I’ll read books. I read history books, usually about the military.”
There are, however, more uncommon ways to spend extra class time.
“If I’m not drawing, I’ll work on my Fallout PowerPoint,” junior Ash Tolen said. “It’s just a compilation of my thoughts on Fallout because I love it.”
Some students don’t even need anything interesting to do to pass the time.
Senior Amillya Mack said, “ Sometimes I’ll just stare at a wall and wait for class to be over.”
As the school year kicks off with this new set of rules, students are still adapting to the change. Fun and creative ways of staying off their phones are likely to keep emerging as the year continues.
