Top South Dakota Senate Republican signals support for school cellphone ban

Sen. Chris Karr says research is overwhelming that students harmed by classroom cellphone use

Photo by Ruan Richard Rodrigues on Unsplash

South Dakota has allowed school districts to go it alone on determining school cellphone policies in a nod to local control.

But a top Republican in the state Senate has signaled that those days might be coming to an end.

Sen. Chris Karr, a Sioux Falls Republican who is the Senate’s president pro tempore, said he has been researching the issue because he has young children and nephews. Karr told Secretary of Education Joseph Graves that what was once anecdotal evidence that cellphones were bad for school children is now backed by solid research.

Department of Corrections warns of high-risk offender release