(bright music) (dramatic music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

I'm Paris Jackson.

We now know who will lead Washington as the next governor.

Bob Ferguson won a majority vote against his opponent, former Congressman Dave Reichert, in Tuesday's contentious election.

The Washington Secretary of State's office says counties will certify their election results on November 26th.

December 5th, all election results will be certified by the state secretary.

And January 15th, Ferguson will be sworn in as the state's 24th governor.

Plus, we're checking in on the progress at one Seattle public school that's restricting student phones this year.

Since September, Robert Eagle Staff Middle School students have kept their cell phones in these pouches during school hours.

A phone-free policy that's had an impact.

- I have to start off by saying transformative.

I'm sitting here with you talking and not dealing with issues from cell phones.

So it's been absolutely a kind of game changer for our community.

- [Paris] 740 middle schoolers go here.

During lunch, instead of students scrolling on their phones, they're engaged with one another.

Robert Eagle Staff principal Zac Stowell says, "Previous phone policies didn't work."

- We realized we can't compete with billion-dollar companies like the social media aspect, where we're reprogramming the way kids are in or out within seven seconds, but then have to sit in a 53, 55, 58-minute class and engage with peers.

- [Paris] Teachers see the difference too.

- I would say 99% of students have their phone away every day.

I no longer worry about what the student is doing under the table when I see them not paying attention, right?

I feel like their phone's away.

I know that I can focus on teaching.

- [Paris] Another Seattle public school, Hamilton International Middle School, has similar smartphone restrictions.

Hamilton's PTSA surveyed teachers who fully support the policy, one anonymously writing, "I've seen huge improvements in kids' attentiveness to academics and face-to-face social interactions."

Retired superintendent and education consultant, Dr. Peter Stiepleman, says, "Nationwide, more than half of states have either introduced and acted or offered incentives through legislation or the Department of Education to move towards cell phone restrictions in schools."

- 77% of school districts across the nation have some sort of phone policy to say that they can only use their phones for educational reasons.

However, the real issue is whether or not you can enforce that.

And so in the case of Mercer Island, they decided to go with a Yondr Pouch.

It's an incredibly useful way of saying we're gonna go phone-free and support our kids.

So kids maintain possession of their phone.

They don't have to give up their phones, but yet they lock it, and then they maintain it throughout the day.

Phone-free says, "Look, we like technology, and we want kids to leverage technology for their learning.

And there's also an opportunity for them to put away their phone and not be distracted by all of the things that come with a smartphone."

What we want to teach children are the important replacement behaviors about cell phones and how dangerous they can be.

We're asking children without a fully developed prefrontal cortex to make rational and reasonable decisions when we can see that adults really struggle with their phones as well.

- It didn't really hit until we took students to eighth grade camp and we said, "No phones."

And we said, "We're gonna go in the woods for four days, we're gonna put phones away, and we're gonna, like, humanize our relationships, and we're gonna have some conflict, and we're gonna navigate it.

We're gonna have a great time."

And I saw kids that were completely different on Orcas Island than they were in here.

And I asked one kid, I said, "What is this?

Who is this?

Who is this?"

I was like, "You don't want people on their phones, I gotta do it myself."

And when you think about kids not having an opportunity to be themselves, they live with this mask on.

This posturing.

And so it became evident that we needed to do something different.

- And they did.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching "The Newsfeed."

Your destination for nonprofit Northwest news, go to cascadepbs.org now to PBS NewsHour.

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