The Los Angeles Unified School District voted 5-2 Tuesday to ban all cellphone usage by students at district schools, expanding on a policy that ordered them off during instructional time.
The school board, having approved the resolution, will develop the particulars of the phone ban within 120 days. The new policy will go into effect by January and could include provisions for storing cell phones and delineating among different types of phones.
Social media use will also be prohibited during the school day.
The existing policy on cell phones has not been updated since 2011, members of the school board noted when presenting the expanded ban, and enforcement of the rules can vary by classroom. The district’s social media policy has not been updated since 2018.
“Cellphone use in schools has gotten out of control. It’s gotten to the point that students don’t talk face-to-face, but instead text one another when they’re sitting right next to each other!” LAUSD School Board President Jackie Goldberg said in a release.
Skeptics say the new policy will be hard to enforce.
“Is the principal’s full-time job going to be arguing with students about cell phones? … This single administrator is also supposed to be visiting classrooms, meeting with parents, going to meetings. … I think it’s going to be a full-time job being the police of the phone,” LAUSD board member Scott Schmerelson said at Tuesday’s meeting.
He voted against the policy along with fellow board member George McKenna.
One teacher in support of the plan said she already has to be the phone police.
“Managing student use of smartphones as a classroom teacher is now more like running a nonstop marathon. It takes a lot of energy and it’s really hard to keep up,” Venice High School math teacher Jessica Quindel said before the vote.
In addition to stopping phone usage during the day, some board members have mulled legal action.
“It is time to formulate a legal strategy that contemplates, but is not restricted to, litigation against social media entities that use algorithms designed to directly appeal and eventually develop an unhealthy addiction,” LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in the release.
The LAUSD decision could presage the adoption of a school phone ban across California. Assembly Bill 3216 would take that step no later than July 1, 2026, if passed.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, supports the bill.
“I look forward to working with the Legislature to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day. When children and teens are in school, they should be focused on their studies — not their screens,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement Tuesday.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.