News Investigation

Brianna Ghey's Mother Calls for School Smartphone Ban

Sep 2025 🇬🇧 BBC News

This BBC News report covers the launch of Esther Ghey's Phone-Free Education campaign, which calls for a statutory ban on pupils accessing phones during the school day, enforced through lockable storage pouches, with exemptions for medical or accessibility needs. The article reports that Brianna's former school, Birchwood Community High School, logged 120 safeguarding entries and 116 behavior entries connected to her phone use over three years, and that Ghey received phone calls from the school roughly five times a day about related incidents. Ghey describes her daughter as having been unable to put her phone down and argues government funding is needed so schools are not left to manage phone-related disruption alone. TechKids Foundation cites this report for its documented, school-logged figures on phone-related safeguarding and behavior incidents tied to one specific case, presented as that school's own record rather than a national statistic.

120 safeguarding logs, 116 behavior logs over three years

Birchwood Community High School's own records, as reported by the BBC, logged 120 safeguarding entries and 116 behavior entries related to Brianna Ghey's phone use across three years.

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CITATION

Jayne McCubbin and Lynette Horsburgh, "Brianna Ghey's Mother Calls for School Smartphone Ban," BBC News, 3 September 2025.

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