School kids, put your damn phones down! Trust me, you’ll thank us later

During the recent Back to School night at Venice High School, I was impressed by the number of classroom signs prohibiting students from using their cell phones.

But how, I wondered, do teachers deal with children who break the rule?

“I try not to be punitive,” my niece’s ethnic studies teacher said.

Well, why not? I wanted to ask. Why don’t we just send them to the vice principal’s office, like teachers used to do?

A few days later, my ninth grader proudly showed me a TikTok dance video she and her friend made in their math classroom.

“Why were you filming yourselves in class when phones are banned?” I asked.

“Oh, that was before the bell rang,” she said, “and the teacher said it was okay.”

Seriously? Maybe it’s the teacher who needs a telling off from the vice principal. (I’m kidding, Mr. P!)

Read more:Will Students Really Ditch Their Cell Phones? California’s Phone-Free Schools Act, Explained

About a week later, I found myself in a Zoom meeting with hundreds of parents. The meeting was meant to be an opportunity for Los Angeles Unified School District parents to discuss the district’s new policy banning smartphones during the school day.

It soon became clear that parents were not asked or They support a ban on cell phones — the Board of Education passed the resolution in June — but how best to implement it when it goes into effect in January? That realization prompted one father to say, “This whole meeting was stupid and pointless.”

It’s true that the school district could have done a better job of explaining the purpose of the meeting, but it was valuable to hear from parents, especially parents who are also teachers and who complained about the stress and distraction of monitoring cell phone use in their classrooms.

Read more:Opinion: Why LAUSD Should Ban Smartphones in Schools

“They’re not wrong that we didn’t get their input,” LA Unified board member Nick Melvoin told me this week, unapologetically. Melvoin, a former teacher, was the driving force behind the resolution. “This is a policy that’s in the best interest of kids and teachers. Every school that’s done this says, ‘I wish we had done this sooner.’”

While there seemed to be general agreement that the ban was a positive step, I was surprised by the fact that so many parents strongly objected to it.

Negative responses ranged from “My child always needs her phone to manage her anxiety” to, essentially, “Over my dead body.” One parent said she didn’t care What the district had introduced, she and her child had no intention of participating.

Unfortunately and as expected, many parents have been concerned about school shootings and the need for children to let their parents know they are safe. But let’s face it, phones don’t make people safer.

Read more:Abcarian: Los Angeles Public Schools Are Banning Cell Phones. What’s Not to Like?

In any case, Melvoin said, in an emergency situation, “it’s much safer for everyone if kids aren’t texting and adults are doing their jobs. Part of that is trying to change the culture around addiction to our phones. We want to be in touch with our kids all the time, but you shouldn’t have to. They need to develop some independence, and even a vibration in your pocket or in your schoolbag is a distraction.”

The good news is that LA Unified isn’t alone. Many private schools already ban phones, and a handful of states have adopted no-phone policies.

In August, the California Legislature passed a bill that would require school districts to develop policies to restrict smartphone use by July 2026.

“Frankly, school boards in general need to be pushed to do this,” said Democratic Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), one of the bill’s authors. “There are always reasons to delay, but the data shows that phones lead to learning loss, lower scores, more depression, physical fights, less focus, less ability to learn. We need to shift the culture to a place where that’s not acceptable.”

Read more:Students Laugh at School Cell Phone Ban. Until They Really Think About It

And let me add that this is a problem that extends beyond the classroom door.

When the kids aren’t in school, they’re on their phones and ignoring each other. Instead, they’re texting, clicking Snaps, and doing other things to distract them from face-to-face contact.

How do you get kids off their phones?

Some schools collect phones in the morning using phone lockers, while others provide magnetic cases that children keep in their possession but can only unlock at school exits or by teachers and administrators. At a large school like Venice High, Melvoin said, cases make the most sense. A case for every student would cost the district about $6 million, Melvoin estimated, a drop in its $15 billion annual budget. “The return on that investment is going to be enormous.”

A pioneer in the phone case business, 10-year-old Mar Vista-based Yondr first created them to free live performers from the distraction of constant cell phone use in the audience. Many artists have adopted the habit of turning off their phones, including Alicia Keys, Guns N’ Roses, the Lumineers, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.

Then teachers started reaching out to the company, CEO Sarah Leader told me. Now the pouches are used in thousands of schools in all 50 states and 27 countries. The company estimates they will be used by more than 2 million students by the end of this year, double that number by the end of 2023.

“We’re not taking anything away,” Leader said. “We’re giving kids access to phone-free education.” Yondr works with schools to train staff and ensure kids and their parents understand how and why a phone-free day can enhance the school experience.

It turns out there are all sorts of unexpected benefits to getting kids off their phones. Schools that use the pouches are seeing more meals being eaten in their cafeterias, Leader said, “because kids feel better about eating when they’re not being recorded.” Some schools, she added, are reporting more library books being checked out.

Banning cell phones in schools will not solve all the problems created by a technology that has gotten completely out of control.

But don’t you agree that this is a great first step?

@robinkabcarian

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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.