Second-largest school district in US creates ‘Phone-Free School Day’ that bans devices — even during breaks
The nation’s second-largest school district voted on Tuesday to ban the use of cell phones in the classroom.
The Los Angeles Unified School District board passed the “Phone-Free School Day” policy in an effort to quell rising youth anxiety and cyberbullying associated with social media and clamp down on distractions in the classroom.
“When I talk to teachers and students and parents … I also hear the same, which is that more and more time is being spent on policing student phone use. There’s not a coherent enforcement and they’re looking for some support from the board and from the district,” Nick Melvoin, the LAUSD school board member who spearheaded the ban, told ABC 7.
“The schools that have gone farther and that have already implemented a phone-free school day report incredible results. Kids are happier, they’re talking to one another, their academics are up.”
The ban builds upon LAUSD’s 2011 cellphone restrictions, which did not come with any enforcement, Melvoin said.
The new ban would require students to lock away their devices while on school premises, even during break periods.
Whether that is in each student’s locker or in a designated pouch will be up to each of the 778 schools within the LAUSD — which serves more than 600,000 students.
The new rule could go into effect as soon as the 2024 fall semester, but no later than January 2025, the memo states.
Only two board members voted against the policy, stating it would be too difficult for faculty at the second-largest school district to enforce the ban.
Parents have also voiced concerns over the prohibition. Some said they want to be able to communicate with their children during the school day and others said it provides children the ability to call out the school’s inappropriate behavior.
“Your cell phone ban is about eliminating a device that holds you accountable for problems in your schools,” one parent said on Facebook.
“Teacher being racist… well you can’t prove it if there isn’t a recording. Fights happening… what fights there is no video. That is the real reason for the ban. You are lying just using them being a ‘distraction’ as an excuse to eliminate something that holds you accountable.”
LAUSD’s ban comes one day after US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to pass legislation requiring social media platforms to have warning labels similar to tobacco products.
Murthy slammed social networks for emerging as an “important contributor” to the “mental health crisis” plaguing the youth of America and called for action to “require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms.”
