Students at Mt. Juliet High School now keep their phones out of use during class, part of how the school is carrying out Tennessee's statewide ban on classroom cellphone use. Under the school's rules, students get their devices back during hall passes between classes and at lunch, a middle-ground approach that has reportedly won over many teachers and students on campus.
The policy traces back to a law the Tennessee General Assembly passed in March 2025 and Governor Bill Lee signed on March 28, 2025, according to LegiScan. The law required Tennessee school districts to bar student cellphone and wireless device use during instructional time starting July 1, 2025. As The Tennessean reported this past Saturday, the ban has largely landed well at Mt. Juliet High, where reporter Andy Humbles found broad buy-in from staff and students alike.
How Wilson County Defined 'Wireless Device'
The Wilson County Board of Education updated its Policy 6.312 on July 14, 2025, casting a wide net over what counts as a restricted device. The policy covers smartwatches, tablets, and gaming consoles in addition to phones, and requires that all such devices stay out of students' direct possession during instruction, per a policy update shared by Wilson County Schools. Mt. Juliet High then built its own day-to-day system around that mandate, requiring students to place devices in classroom storage at the start of each period.
The district's policy also includes a non-liability clause. Neither the school board nor individual employees are financially responsible for devices that are lost, stolen, or damaged while stored or confiscated under the rule, the same policy update notes.
Not Every District Handles It the Same Way
Implementation of the law varies considerably across Middle Tennessee. Wilson County and Metro Nashville Public Schools both allow high schoolers to use their phones during lunch, while Rutherford County Schools generally require students to go without their phones throughout the school day, with exceptions for special events such as pep rallies and homecoming, according to WPLN News. That gap in enforcement has become a point of political debate. In July 2026, U.S. Senator and Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn proposed expanding the state law into a mandatory, statewide bell-to-bell ban that would scrap the lunch and passing-period exceptions districts like Wilson County currently allow, as reported by Tennessee Firefly.
Exemptions and Emergency Communication
The law allows exceptions for emergencies, medical needs, disability accommodation plans, and educational use, according to WBIR. The Tennessee Conservative has also described direct parent notification during crises rather than reliance on texts from students.
Emergency communication remains part of the broader discussion about how schools reach families during crises.
A Broader Statewide Push on Screens
Tennessee has continued its broader debate over screens and social media in schools. School cellphone policies remain part of a wider national debate.
Since the cellphone law was signed, the debate in Tennessee has shifted from whether to restrict phones in schools to how strict those restrictions should be — a question that districts like Wilson County and Rutherford County are still answering differently.
