Students in the Los Angeles Unified School District may have to put away their cell phones while at school.
The L.A. Unified School District Board is considering banning cell phones in the classroom, joining school districts in the country such as Florida and Indiana. The board is set to discuss the ban during a meeting on Tuesday.
LAUSD District board member Nick Melvoin spearheaded the proposal, according to the Los Angeles Times. The proposal aims to ban cell phone use "during the entire school day," the outlet reported.
But Melvoin told KNX News’ Karen Adams his proposal is more of a “phone-free day" rather than a ban.
“But basically schools would have some discretion on how to enforce it,” he said. “What we're seeing across the country and really the world are everything from cell phone lockers where a kid comes in and when they go through the gates, they just put their phone in a little locker. It's locked all day and then they can have it when they leave for their ride home, their walk home, their after school programs, or these little cell phone pouches that the kids can keep with them and then the school locks them usually by a magnet.”
According to LAUSD’s policy bulletin, cell phones are banned “during normal school hours or school activities, excluding the students’ lunchtime or nutrition breaks unless the school site council has adopted a stricter policy,” the LAist reported.
School officials believe that the ban would not help students concentrate on learning, but that it would also cut down on cyberbullying and anxiety.
"I just think that asking kids to put their phones down for six hours and focus on each other is really important for both their mental and physical health and their academic achievement,” Melvoin said.
One parents told KNX News' Karen Adams she was in favor of the phones being taken away.
“It's too much of a distraction,” she said. “We didn't have that when I was growing up.”
But another parent said they have some safety concerns.
“We need to be able to contact our children and in case of any emergency,” she said. “There's been a lot of school shootings. They need to be able to contact someone, call the police.”
Melvoin said he understands those safety concerns.
“But in researching this resolution, almost every public safety expert will say that rationally, the last thing you want in an emergency is every kid on their phone who you don't want them texting different instructions,” he said. “You don't want switchboards being overwhelmed. You don't want a text and beeping to notify a potential assailant of a student's location.”
If approved, the policy would go into effect in January 2025, according to the L.A. Times.
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