An Arizona high school teacher blames students’ overuse of cell phones in the classroom for his own mental health problems, saying it forced him to quit his job.
Mitchell Rutherford, a biology teacher at Saguaro High School in Tucson, Arizona, for more than 10 years, said he quit because he was driven mad by repeated failed attempts to get his students to stop using the devices.
“I’ve struggled this year, primarily with my mental health, due to what I perceive as cell phone addiction among students,” Rutherford said. He told KVOA.
Frustrated educators believe cellphone addiction stems from school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, which have led to desocialization of students.
Rutherford noticed a change in his students last fall, before he realized he was working harder than them.
“Something has changed this year. It’s like they’ve just numbed themselves, they’ve just withdrawn from society and they can’t let it go, they can’t put it away,” he told media.
Rutherford said half the students were failing their classes in October and told him they didn’t want to go to school or worry about their grades.
“I was starting to think I was the problem,” said Rutherford, who was experiencing increasing anxiety and depression. The Wall Street Journal.
According to the media, Saguaro High School’s cell phone policy prohibits cell phone use during class, but teachers are responsible for enforcing it.
Rutherford likened heavy cell phone use to drug addiction.
“Opioids are obviously a big problem, cocaine, heroin, all the other drugs, alcohol, they’re all big problems, but sugar is even more of a problem, cell phones are even more of a problem,” he said.
To help students combat so-called “addictions,” Rutherford offered bribes to young people to give up their digital devices.
“Here’s the extra assignment: Check your screen time, create habits, do a unit on sleep and why sleep is important and how to cut down on your phone use as a pre-bedtime routine. We talk about it every day and we’ve created a basket called phone jail,” he explained to KVOA.
He tried taking the class on nature walks and teaching them meditation techniques, but to no avail.
“I approach kids and say, ‘Give me your phone,’ and they grab it. And I say if an alcoholic tried to take their bottle away, that’s the same thing he’d do,” he told the Journal.
97% of students use mobile phones during class. According to a Common Sense Media survey last year,.
Gov. Kathy Hawkle called this week for a ban on children using smartphones in schools, proposing that students be given “dumb” phones that can send text messages but cannot access the internet.
Parents understood Rutherford’s frustrations with screen-obsessed teens, but they weren’t too happy about him leaving.
“I agree with him. I don’t agree with quitting at all, but I do agree with this stance he’s taking because he can’t do the job,” parent Chris Anderson told the NBC affiliate.
“I suppose it’s natural that I’m frustrated because I have two teenage sons who are constantly on their phones and it’s a huge distraction,” Bernadette Sausage told the outlet.
Rutherford’s last day of teaching was May 23. He called it a bittersweet day, but also a great day for him and his family.
“I feel like I’m failing my kids, telling them to do hard things all the time and now I’m quitting,” he says, “but I decided to try something else that wasn’t going to totally consume and wear me out.”
Rutherford hopes to eventually earn a PhD.
