Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul and Western New York School Leaders Highlight Plans to Implement Bell-to-Bell Smartphone Restrictions This Fall

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul held a roundtable with Western New York school leaders, parents and students to highlight their plans for implementing bell-to-bell smartphone restrictions when school resumes this fall. The roundtable included representatives of the Niagara Falls and Lackawanna School Districts — both of whom have distraction-free policies in place. Today’s event follows previous roundtables held by the Governor this summer in New York City, the Capital Region, Central New York, the Hudson Valley and the Finger Lakes.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

You all seem real excited about school starting. Come on, let's perk it up everybody. How are you? Good to see everyone. Thank you for joining us as we continue what has been an extraordinary journey. And I want to thank the Superintendent, Mark Laurrie, for hosting us here today. And our Superintendent of Lackawanna School District has joined us here. Superintendent Nashir and a lot of people representing young people, students and parents, teachers union and and others who have been working intently on something that I think is going to be one of the significant transformational policies that the State of New York has ever engaged in. And that is promising our students a distraction free environment. When they go to school in kindergarten and when they've done graduating in 12th grade, I'm telling you they're going to merge as more well-rounded, more well adjusted, more well educated students than we're doing right now. And it is not their fault, It is not the teacher's fault — it is the fact that for the last decade we have allowed the influence of cell phones in what is supposed to be an educational environment. And it creates a great distraction, whether it's the phone itself or earbuds or smartwatches. It's a different world now compared to what it had been previously, and it's not for the better. Because another fight we took on with the State Legislature against big tech companies was that we said there's such negative influence on our young people coming from addictive algorithms that are bombarding students.

An average of 250 notifications a day, but it's many times pushing darker content and negative content and not just that, but it's also monetizing our kids' mental health. They've been collecting information about our kids, about their preferences and selling it to advertisers. And so, we stopped all that in New York. We're the first state in the nation to say no more, you can't monetize our kids' mental health. And we stopped that as well as the notifications overnight and making sure that they cannot unsolicited send algorithms and messages to students and young people. But, a cell phone is still the device that is used for bullying, creating enormous pressure, social pressure on young people.

Teenage years are hard enough, I know that from having been a teenager and raising teenagers. But to have the extra stress of — as one of the girls I was talking to at one event told me — “We're sitting here and like someone's texting that they hate my clothes, they're mocking me out. They're having a meeting in the girls' room and I'm not invited. They're talking about the parties on Friday and I'm getting all upset because no one cares.” And they're supposed to be learning. And also the distraction of — a student has to look at either a math teacher or a TikTok dance video. And I'm sorry, teachers, we know what's winning out there. So this is what's been going on a long time. And I went on a year and a half, almost two-year journey to gather representation of what we have here — law enforcement and superintendents and teachers and principals and administrators and students and parents, and just saying, “What can we do here?”

And I'm really proud that we're able to be now the largest state in America that's starting as soon as this school year begins. Very shortly, the largest state in the nation to have a completely distraction free environment from kindergarten to 12th grade. Not allowed during lunch or study halls or phys-ed class either. And I'll tell you why. Because what you're going to witness and experience is something that is extraordinary. I've been to the schools where they went ahead. A few schools already went ahead a couple of years ago, and what the students told me is that now they have actual friends in person instead of sitting at lunch and talking even across the room or to someone else. They're talking to people as if they're human beings and making eye contact and interacting. And so, I feel really good about having heard from those and the transition's tough. It is tough, and I'm telling parents, get ready for this. You should be weaning your young people whether it's especially the young children but also weaning our teenagers that it's going to be a hard transition.

A lot of schools are finding alternatives to bring into the classroom to maybe even some board games to let students interact with each other. Every school can handle it the way they want, but it's going to be a transition. But when it's over a number of months people won't look back. They'll say, “Why did it take so long?” And I'm proud that I saw a problem that was going on too long. It's not usually the purview of the Governor to talk about education policy, but in this case I knew I needed to lead, not just as a leader of the State, but also as a parent, who cares deeply about our children's mental health.

So again, Superintendent, I want to thank you again for hosting us and I would love to hear your remarks.