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Study Shows Student Well-Being Improves Over Time of Phone Bans; Oil Prices Surge on Fears Fragile U.S.-Iran Ceasefire May End; Bezos-Backed Met Gala Draws Calls for Boycott. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 04, 2026 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... from the buckshot of the shotgun was found embedded in the vest of the Secret Service agent. So in that video, it is seen where Alan runs past the Secret Service agent and the agent is shot. The agent then fires back five times that Alan does not hit him and then he's out of the frame. She said, though, that there's additional video, surveillance footage out there that we will be seeing at some point in time.

And, of course, a reminder, Allen has not been formally indicted yet, so he hasn't entered a plea. And also, there's a long road before we see exactly what the Justice Department is going to be able to charge here. But Pirro is making -- she's having no hesitation in saying that the Justice Department believes he hit the agent with a gunshot and he had the intent to kill -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Katelyn Polantz, appreciate the update. Thank you so much.

Still ahead, do cell phone bans at school work? Researchers took a look at the data and we'll share what they found next.

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ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Students distracted by cell phones, the bane of both parents and teachers. So what happens when those cell phones are taken out when they're actually banned from schools? Well, a new study out today shows mixed results, and it's also interesting what they're looking at in terms of results. So going through 40,000 schools which banned cell phones between 2019 and 2026, this study found that test scores didn't really see any major changes, in fact, close to zero as researchers went through that data.

They also found that the bans didn't seem to improve student attendance or their perception of online bullying. Some student suspensions increased an average of 16 percent, especially in the early years of the phone bans. But it's really important to note here, there was not a reason given for why they increased. On the upside here, researchers found that those bans did have a positive impact on students' well-being. Joining us now is Dr. Carol Vidal. She's a child and adolescent

psychiatrist and also an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. It's great to have you with us. I have to say, this is a really interesting point of discussion, certainly for us here and for our show team. I was struck by what they were measuring and the fact that this was sort of seen negatively because the test scores didn't improve. Is that how we should be measuring the success of cell phone bans?

DR. CAROL VIDAL, CHILD AND ADOLESCENT PSYCHIATRIST: I think that the study really measured, first of all, one question is that whether these pouches that keep the phone locked and inaccessible for the time between bell to bell if they actually work. And what the study found is that they do work because there was an 80 percent decrease in the share of students who use cell phone for personal reasons during those cell phone bans. So that was the biggest first question.

And then there were those questions about whether they improved well- being and behaviors. And they did find that there was an increase in discipline incidents when there was a transition to the cell phone ban, and then worse while being initially. But then after some time, there were a decrease in discipline incidents and also an increase in well-being. So that is good news.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was that the lack of improvement in academic outcomes. There was just a little bit of an improvement in math in high school, and I guess we expected it to be bigger since you know the cell phones are so distracting. But at the same time, one could expect that academic outcomes would take longer to improve, especially when things like math and reading takes years to master. So I'm not super surprised that that was the case with there was no difference in the school attendance or online bullying, but I think those are expected from my point of view because school attendance is much more complex and online bullying happens outside of the schools.

HILL: It does. Unfortunately, it's there's really school -- without a cell phone could be a safe space for a few hours a day. I was struck. I have to say, looking at this, I mean I my kids are 19 and 16 and my first thought was not about test scores. I was thinking about their social emotional well-being. The impact that this could than not having that phone during the day. So the fact that teachers did report fewer distractions may not have translated into higher math scores, but still important. And the fact that the kids had a greater sense of well-being.

What does that tell you about the impact of not having access to that device for several hours a day and what that could potentially do for kids?

VIDAL: Well I think that what was interesting was to see that the teachers actually liked the bans and the kids liked them less. And I think sometimes children are not aware of what's going on around them or they get used to a certain way of going through their day. But the teachers, they showed -- they liked the bans, so when they were surveyed before and after, they appreciated the bans and although the kids opposed the bans, they also had a better well-being. So I think even if they didn't realize that they were. And so benefiting from them, they did.

HILL: And probably not surprising, right? The teachers would be thinking this is a good thing and the kids not so excited about it. You know, I was struck with what we saw, even just in other school district, not with this study in particular, but just last year in Kentucky, in Jefferson County, officials there said that their ban, they noticed actually coincided with a boost in the number of library books being checked out, that they found kids discovering books again.

This study found that of those 40,000 schools that they looked at that were using these pouches, you know, some of people from those districts, they noted that kids were sort of discovering conversation again.

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They were starting to talk to each other. They were talking to each other in the lunchroom. How important is that interpersonal communication for this generation, and how much of it do you think has been missing because they're constantly in a phone, as are many adults?

VIDAL: Right, I think that is one of the concerns of the adults because we've lived a different type of period where there wasn't so much technology in our everyday life. And I think that in-person socialization is super important for kids because you can have a very comfortable social relationship online where you just post something and then disappear. But when you're in face-to-face interactions, you have to basically get a feedback from the person right away in the moment. and you have to be gentle enough to not break the relationship. So I think in-person communication is really important. And even though it might not show in this data specifically because they didn't measure that, it is probably something that anecdotally a lot of parents and teachers can notice.

HILL: It's not just phones. There is a growing discussion about screen time in general, both at home and at school. And certainly we saw a large increase in screens in schools because of COVID, right? Almost every kid now having a Chromebook or a laptop of some sort. When you look at this study, in the grand scheme of things, do you think we will start to see more of a pullback when it comes to devices in the classroom, whether they're personal devices for older kids or even school-issued devices?

VIDAL: Well, I think that's already starting to happen in LA. They're already limiting screen time, especially in the lower grades. And I think that was one thing that we did not measure, sometimes we do interventions in educational settings that don't have the data. And school devices, we didn't really have the data, but we haven't really seen an improvement in academic outcomes because of the school devices. And I think that they are also distracting, and this is something that obviously the study couldn't control for because a lot of American schools have devices in the school, in classroom. So many of the kids actually access social media through those devices and they're able to get over the limitations that are put by the district.

So I think that is a really good question, like whether the next step is considering whether the school devices are also distracting and maybe not so helpful for education, or at least not at the level that we're using them.

HILL: Yes, to your point, we didn't really have the data before. Now we certainly have at least a few years. It'd be interesting to see how that's used. Dr. Carol Vidal, appreciate it. Thank you.

VIDAL: Thank you so much.

HILL: Just ahead here, the price of gas continuing to rise, up more than 30 cents in just the last week. So will guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz help bring those prices down? Stay with us.

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SANCHEZ: Prices at the pump jumping again today. The national average for regular unleaded now $4.46 a gallon, up 35 cents from a week ago, the highest since the start of the Iran war. One oil analyst telling CNN that if the Strait of Hormuz isn't open soon, U.S. gas prices could soar to $5 a gallon.

Crude oil is also surging today as the U.S. and Iran trade fire in the Gulf region, the main U.S. benchmark still trading above $100 a barrel. Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz also rattling investors on Wall Street as we await the closing bell in about 12 and a half minutes.

Let's discuss with Kevin Book. He's the managing director of Clearview Energy Partners. Kevin, great to see you again. What is the impact of Project Freedom, this effort from the Trump administration to guide ships through the Strait? Do you see it as having a meaningful change in the disposition of these carriers?

KEVIN BOOK, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CLEARVIEW ENERGY PARTNERS: Well, this morning, CENTCOM reported to Boris that two ships had made it through. There's hundreds to get through besides that. Getting them through from where they're trapped in the Strait isn't the same thing as getting traffic restored for usual volumes. Sure, more volume could make a difference. Getting some of those trap ships to market means more supply to a market that's starting to run out. But no, it's not a big change just yet.

SANCHEZ: Generally, the U.S. is concerned about this becoming a precedent for Iran, for them to sort of choke the Strait of Hormuz. It's what U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz described as one of the reasons that Project Freedom has to succeed in his view. Would that be enough to unwind precedent if in the next few days we saw more traffic through the Strait? Or is this something that is going to require either a large international force or a more semi-permanent basis of forces there to keep Iran from essentially strangling the global economy. BOOK: Well, Boris, the president has certainly asked for international cooperation and the international partners have suggested that they might be willing to stand up something for a more enduring presence after hostilities end. But of course, hostilities look like they're escalating right now. I think to the question of setting a global precedent, that is an important part of the story because there are many other bottlenecks in the global shipping world and having one shut off will start to raise possibilities that others could be too.

SANCHEZ: That is an important point. I wonder how much of this is simply trying to create confidence in the vessels that are sort of standing by in the Persian Gulf, but also in global shipping, and how that confidence is created beyond this Project Freedom idea? Does there have to be a deal in order to see free flow of navigation again?

BOOK: Both ways, resuming regular traffic. Probably there has to be something like a durable bargain in place. Moving things forward, though, and sending a directional signal of progress could be important.

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As the president mentioned in his post last night, there are mariners who have been trapped and are starting to run short of supplies. There are also questions, really, of those barrels. They may not be a lot, but relative to the market right now, zero coming out for more than 60 days is starting to become a problem. More is more.

SANCHEZ: So with gas prices now hitting an average of $4.46, just a shade under $4.50, according to AAA, is $5 gas something that is actually on the horizon? Is there anything that can be done short of a deal with Tehran to avoid that?

BOOK: It's very much on the horizon, the way things are going right now. Not only do we have the continuation of the bottleneck in the Strait, but the possibility that we could have a resumption of hostilities, more damage to facilities, extending the downtime for some of the areas in the Gulf that have stopped producing and wouldn't be able to resume as fast. So $5 by the end of the month is eminently possible.

SANCHEZ: By the end of the month.

BOOK: Could be sooner than that, for sure.

SANCHEZ: When do you think we'll potentially see relief? Is there anything in sight that would get us that, again, short of a deal?

BOOK: Well, there's one other thing, and nobody would celebrate it, which would be an economic decline.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

BOOK: And if we have a shortfall in demand, then we get some price relief, but not in a way that anybody would be happy about. SANCHEZ: Understood. So, rising jet fuel costs likely were the nail in the coffin for Spirit Airlines. We've seen some reports out of Europe. They're estimating that their capacity for jet fuel is dwindling, that it could be fewer than six weeks at this point. I believe the report was out about two weeks ago. Do you see other carriers, airlines specifically, in trouble? Do you think that the global travel industry is deeply going to be affected very soon?

BOOK: And it's not just airlines. So what we're really talking about when we talk about jet fuel is something that the industry refers to as middle distillates, the product of refining that comes out of sort of the middle of the stack. And that includes jet fuel as well as diesel fuel. When you ramp up your jet fuel, you reduce your available diesel fuel. So everything that travels requires a lot of middle distillate. And one of the things about the shortage we have right now is not only we're missing refined products from the Gulf, but also the oil that is refined is the oil that is best suited for making that jet fuel and that diesel.

SANCHEZ: Understood. Kevin, if you could please stand by. President Trump has just asked about fuel prices. He's holding an event at the White House pertaining to actions his administration have taken on small businesses. Let's listen to the president moments ago.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... But he was wrong. They thought that energy would be at $300, right, $300 a barrel, and it's, like, at 100, and I think going down. And I see it going down very substantially when this is over, Chris, and I think very rapidly, too, at levels that you've never seen, because there's a lot of energy out there. Ships all over the world that are loaded up with it. They can't do much with it because they got kidnapped by a pretty evil place, but we're taking care of it. We have Administrator Kelly Hoffman ...

SANCHEZ: That was President Trump describing the situation on the Strait of Hormuz and in the Persian Gulf, saying that vessels there had been kidnapped by Tehran. Before we go, Kevin, I just wonder if folks watching this at home, and obviously the people that actually work in this industry and that ultimately help guide energy prices here in the United States, I wonder what they're watching for as this ceasefire is tenuously holding on. Do you think there would be an immediate reaction, the way that we saw a few weeks ago when the president was saying that there was progress on talks, do you think there would be an immediate reaction from markets if we saw this thing completely fall apart, these talks?

BOOK: Yes, I do. And you can say that with some certainty because of what happened today. Last night, when the president put out his post about Project Freedom, the market opened down a little bit by a couple bucks a barrel but quickly recovered back to where it had started. And then when news of hostilities showed up this morning, up by $6 a barrel, I think you could see plenty of upside with a further expansion.

SANCHEZ: Kevin Book, thank you so much for sharing your expertise.

BOOK: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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HILL: We are now just a few hours away from fashion's biggest night. The 2026 Met Gala is almost upon us. Tonight's theme, fashion is art.

SANCHEZ: Tonight's gala is drawing more controversy than usual because of the event's primary sponsors, Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos. Let's bring in CNN senior style reporter, Rachel Tastren. Rachel, do you think protests are going to impact the festivities at all tonight?

RACHEL TASHJIAN, CNN SENIOR STYLE REPORTER: Well, I mean, there are always controversies around the Met Gala that's sort of part and parcel of what comes with an event of this scale. And, of course, if you have fashion and politics and celebrity all coming together, that's inevitable. But I do think we will see a lot of pushback on social media tonight and through the rest of the week, which is where primarily the commentary and coverage of this event happens. We've seen boycotts happening throughout New York City over the past couple of weeks. And I think there is a lot of concern that Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are not quite the right match for this moment in history and the Met Museum.

HILL: Yes, not a lot of love loss, it seems, for the two of them when it comes to this event. They're not, though, the only big names really playing a role this year.

TASHJIAN: Yes, of course. I mean, obviously we'll have Anna Wintour there. But Beyonce and Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams are all co- chairs of the event. So there will be a lot of celebrity high wattage there. And I think in a certain way, you know, Lauren and Jeff will be some of the marquee attendees of the evening as well. I mean, I think people are really excited to see what they're wearing, for better and worse.

SANCHEZ: The gala has raised a record $42 million already. How much does it typically cost to attend?

TASHJIAN: So, it costs $100,000 for a single ticket, and that is up from $75,000 last year. And if you'd like to buy a whole table, it is $350,000. But, I mean, it is pretty incredible, the amount of money that this has brought in, despite the controversy. I mean, people are very eager to go to this event.

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HILL: Yes. And it raises money, correct me if wrong, I know we're almost out of time, but for the Costume Institute at the Met, correct?

TASHJIAN: Of course, yes. Yes, of course. This is primarily how the Costume Institute pays to preserve the clothes in its collection. HILL: I'm sure that we can petition our bosses to buy a table next year for such a good cause.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

HILL: So, Rachel, you can lead the charge on that one.

SANCHEZ: Excited to see the outfits. Thanks for being with us, Erica.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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