The Los Angeles Unified School District could soon join a growing number of districts across the country that have banned cell phone use on campuses during school hours.
The issue is up for discussion at Tuesday’s board meeting after board member Nick Melvoin made a proposal, hoping the ban would prevent the potentially negative impact of phones on students’ mental health and well-being.
“The phone-free school policy says students are not allowed to have their phones from the time they enter the classroom until the end of the day,” Melvoin said Monday. “Let’s get kids interacting with each other, free from the distractions that we know harm mental health, their academics.”
His resolution cites research supporting the idea that students have fewer meaningful interactions with classmates and are less likely to learn when they spend too much time on their phones.
“Research shows that excessive cell phone use impacts the mental health and well-being of adolescents and is associated with increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, feelings of aggression and suicidal ideation,” the Order of Business said before the meeting. Tuesday.
The motion is already supported by board members Tanya Ortiz Franklin and President Jackie Goldberg. A fourth vote is needed to pass.
It points to similar policies already in place in places like Florida, where public schools in 2023 began blocking students’ phone use during class time and even banned social media access while using district WiFi. Since then, districts in Oklahoma, Kansas, Vermont, Ohio, Louisiana and Pennsylvania have passed similar legislation, according to the resolution text.
If approved, it will be some time before it actually goes into effect, as the resolution calls on the district to develop a set of policies for social media and cell phone use during normal school hours on every LAUSD campus. It would come into effect in early 2025.
Some parents have resisted this because they prefer their children to have access to their phones in case of an emergency.
“They should have it for protection as soon as they leave the school campus,” said Regina Schoetz, an LAUSD parent who partially agrees with the motion but doesn’t think the final decision should rest with the district.
“I don’t think there should be a big ban on them or they should be locked up. I think it’s up to the parents,” she said.
Melvoin says the last policy update for cell phone use was implemented in 2011 and only phones are not called during class.
