The Missouri Senate has passed a wide-ranging K-12 public school bill.
The legislation includes a ban on students using cellphones throughout the entire length of the school day, including both class time and lunch breaks. The sponsor, State Sen. Mike Henderson, R-Desloge, said each school district would be responsible for crafting its own cellphone policy.
“We say in that bill…they have to have a policy prohibiting and using it from bell to bell,” Henderson said. “They (can) use it on field trips in this version (of the bill), but some schools will let them leave it in their pocket and just say ‘you can’t use them.’ Some of them have shelves built in some places where they have them put them. We left it fully open for the schools to promulgate the rules that work best for them.”
The bill would also put in place measures to remove lead from drinking water in schools.
“As you know, lead can be severely – can be bad for everybody, but especially those kids of a young age,” Henderson said. “We’re just trying to make sure and give them a chance to keep that water safe.”
SB 68 would also require schools to have response plans for heart emergencies, traumatic blood loss, natural disasters, and armed intruders. And it would require anti-intruder locks and bullet-resistant window film…if the state provides the funding.
It now goes to the Missouri House, and if it passes there it would go to the governor for a decision.
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