This will be the last Conversation With Journalists of the 2024-25 school year. If you have used this feature, we would love to hear about your experiences. Please email us at [email protected]
Cafeteria melees; students kicked in the head; injured educators: Cellphones are stoking cycles of violence in schools across the United States.
Natasha Singer, a Times technology reporter, writes about the troubling national trend:
Across the United States, technology centered on cellphones — in the form of text messages, videos and social media — has increasingly fueled and sometimes intensified campus brawls, disrupting schools and derailing learning. The school fight videos then often spark new cycles of student cyberbullying, verbal aggression and violence.
For her story, Ms. Singer reviewed more than 400 fight videos from schools in California, Georgia, Texas and a dozen other states. She also conducted interviews with three dozen school leaders, teachers, police officers, pupils, parents and researchers.
Do Ms. Singer’s words resonate with your own experiences? Have you seen a connection between cellphones and cyberbullying, verbal aggression and violence? If so, how is it affecting you and your school community? What should adults — parents, teachers, journalists — understand about this issue that they might be missing?
Join a conversation with Ms. Singer, by posting your questions, thoughts and experiences by April 10.
Featured Article
We will be discussing “An Epidemic of Vicious School Brawls, Fueled by Student Cellphones,” published on Dec. 15, 2024.
We’ll be joined by Natasha Singer, the author of the piece.
She a technology reporter for the business section of The New York Times, who writes about how tech companies, digital devices and apps are reshaping childhood, public schooling and job opportunities.
In her Times bio, Ms. Singer writes: “I am fascinated by the far-reaching ways in which social media platforms, artificial intelligence and other technologies are transforming young people’s lives, educational experiences and career prospects.” She also says, “I’ve learned from experience that the best ideas for stories about tech in schools often come from students and teachers.”
In 2019, Ms. Singer was a member of a Times reporting team whose coverage of tech industry privacy violations won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in national reporting.
Questions to Think About As You Read
What parts of the article — whether individual lines, paragraphs, photos, quotes or anything else — stand out to you? Why?
Do you think it is important to include students’ perspectives in articles about schools? Why? How did Ms. Singer incorporate student voices in the featured article?
Is there anything that challenges what you know or thought you knew? What did you learn?
What connections can you make between this article and your own life?
Is there anything missing from this article that you wish was included? If so, what and why?
What questions does this piece raise for you?
What would you like to ask or say to the journalists who created it?
What would you like to ask or say to other teenagers who are reading this article with you?
What other tech-related topics that affect schools and students would you like Ms. Singer and The Times to report on?
Focus questions: Is there a connection between school fights and cellphones? What are you seeing in your own school? What do you think could be done to address this troubling national trend?
How to Join the Conversation
First, read the featured article. Use the questions above to help you reflect on them.
Respond in the comments. Be sure to introduce yourself and then share your reactions to what you saw and read. Ask Ms. Singer a question, either about her piece or about her work in general.
Post your response by Thursday, April 10. Ms. Singer will begin responding by Monday, April 14.
Come back to the conversation to read Ms. Singers’s replies and to respond. What is something she shared that intrigued you? What is something you learned about her reporting process? What questions do you still have?
Remember that you can reply to and recommend other students’ comments throughout the two weeks. We hope you’ll keep the conversation going.
(Not sure what to ask? Check out this list of more than 20 ideas (PDF) — but don’t feel that you have to stick to them!)
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Are you a teacher or student who has feedback on this new feature or would like to suggest a Times piece for future discussion? Please post a comment here.
