Students in the nation’s second-largest school district will no longer be able to use cell phones during the school day after the Los Angeles Unified School District’s board voted 5-2 in favor of the ban Tuesday.
The move highlights a frustration shared by educators across the country. In the United States, 72% of high school teachers said cell phone distraction “is a major problem in the classroom,” according to a report last week by the Pew Research Center.
The Los Angeles ban, which will take effect by the spring 2025 semester, goes beyond the school district’s existing policy, which bans students from using cell phones during class instruction and limits social media use at school to “educational purposes.”
That policy took effect in 2011. Since then, smartphone use has exploded – both inside and outside the classroom. And students’ addiction to their phones has hurt their socialization, their mental health and their academic success, board member Nick Melvoin said.
“Our students are glued to their cell phones – not unlike adults,” said Melvoin, a sponsor of the new ban.
“They’re surreptitiously scrolling in school, in class time. They have their head in their hands walking down the hallways. They’re not talking to each other or playing at lunch or recess because they have their AirPods in.”
