The Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee heard testimony on Tuesday about a proposed law to mandate all schools in Pennsylvania be phone-free. A group of concerned parents from Western Pennsylvania who are part of PA Unplugged traveled to Harrisburg to show support for the bill.

The hearing included school administrators, teachers, students, a school board member and Dr. Ashley Loboda, a pediatrician who's also a parent from Allegheny County. 

"Over the past decade and particularly since the widespread adoption of smartphone use among youth, I've witnessed a clear and troubling rise in anxiety, depression and suicidality among youth, difficulty in focusing and completing school work, social withdrawal, cyberbullying and online harassment. We cannot continue to ignore these trends," Dr. Loboda testified.

State Sen. Devlin Robinson from Allegheny County co-sponsored the bill and spoke in support of it, saying phone-free schools are needed to prepare our young people to make a competitive Pennsylvania. Twenty states now have laws banning phones in schools all day.

The Pennsylvania State House Education Committee is holding a hearing on a phone-free schools legislation on Nov. 17. PA Unplugged members plan to travel to Harrisburg to show support during that hearing as well.