Away For The Day | Latest News - Pa. lawmakers want phones out of classrooms. How one Pittsburgh-area school made the switch.

In the cafeteria of Carlynton Junior-Senior High School, a few weeks into the school year, 11th grader Safa Alnahhas sat at a round table playing the card game Uno with her friends.

“I won, by the way,” she boasted, cheekily. “Always a winner.”

The lunchtime games are a change for Alnahhas. Her Allegheny County school introduced them this year shortly after a new bell-to-bell ban on cellphone use went into effect.

The policy mirrors bipartisan legislation Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced this fallthat would ban students across the commonwealth from using their cellphones during the school day, with a few exceptions.

At Carlynton, students are required to store their phones in magnetically locked pouches at the start of the school day. The bags are unsealed only after the final bell rings.

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