Congressman Deluzio Hosts Bipartisan Roundtable Discussion on Smartphones in Classrooms

SEWICKLEY BOROUGH, PA – Today, as students and teachers start a new school year, Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17) moderated a bipartisan roundtable conversation with PA State Senator Devlin Robinson (SD-37) and Western PA educators, a student, and a parent to discuss the impact of smartphones in classrooms and how we can best protect our kids from addictive and distracting technology in school. 

“I’m a dad of four, I see the clear evidence that smartphones in the classroom are hurting learning, and I think we’ve got to do more to help our kids learn in the face of Big Tech pushing their addictive and distracting devices and apps on our kids,” said Congressman Deluzio. “Our kids are getting pummeled and our teachers’ jobs are getting even harder. I’ll keep digging in and working with anyone to tackle this huge problem, and I thank today’s roundtable participants for their contributions to an informative and productive conversation.”

Other participants in the roundtable included: PA State Senator Devlin Robinson (SD-37), who recently proposed bipartisan legislation in Harrisburg to make every PA school phone-free all day; Melissa Costantino-Poruben, a PA State Education (PSEA) member who has taught math for 26 years at all levels in Avonworth School District and currently teaches 6th grade; Erin Ruggiero, also a PSEA member and Teacher at Moon Area School District; Kelly Marsh, PhD, the PA legislation lead for PA Unplugged and a local parent worried about how smartphones are hurting their kids; and Kim Francisco-Martinez, a senior at Duquesne University and 2022 High School graduate who grew up in the smartphone era.  

Congressman Deluzio is a leading voice on the issue of kids and smartphone and social media addiction. Earlier this summer, he sent letters to all 59 school districts in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District asking if they will have a classroom smartphone ban in place for the coming school year. He also recently launched a public survey asking Western Pennsylvanians if they think schools should ban smartphones in K-12 classrooms. Since the survey was released on August 12th, 700 people have responded, with 76% saying they support classroom smartphone bans. Today’s roundtable is the latest in Congressman Deluzio’s ongoing effort to collect information to inform his legislative efforts. Congressman Deluzio’s office plans to release a report with this information. 

Photo and video from the roundtable are available for use by the press upon request.

###