Primary education has changed a lot in the past few decades. What used to be a space for learning, socializing, and growing up has turned on its head. From weapons in classrooms to dwindling attention spans, kids are growing up in a vastly different world.

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Arizona schools have had their hands forced.

No More Cell Phones

One of the biggest issues facing schools right now is the student's attention spans. The reason? Cell phones, of course. With a computer a thousand times more powerful than the one we used to go to the moon in their pocket, kids have been tuning out lessons in favor of watching their favorite streamers, or upgrading their Clash of Clans base.

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The Bullhead City School District, located on the western border of the state, has their solution. They will require students in their district to shut off their phones, and store them in a locked cabinet for the entirety of the school day.

While this may help solve the problem, parents are livid, as this means they have no way to contact their students in case of an emergency.

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That's where their next change comes in.

Read More: Arizona's War on Drugs Reaches Schools

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Backpacks are Gone Too

Probably the most talked about issues in schools is student safety. Day after day we see stories on the news of kids bringing weapons or illicit drugs to school, and causing irreparable damage to families.

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To counter that, Bullhead has also banned backpacks from their schools. They believe that students use them too often to bring in and hide things from staff and teachers. Currently, the rule only applies to Junior High students, as they have no need for physical textbooks, which will allow them to roam the halls unburdened by the 250 pound backpack we had to suffer through (did my chemistry textbook really need to weigh that much?).

Girl bends over to relieve the weight of her backpack. She looks exhausted
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At the end of the day, these choices were made to give students a brighter future. While you may or may not agree with these choices, the district's heart is in the right place. They want the best for our kids, and it's only a matter of time before we see these protocols at every school in the state.

[NBC12]

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