Los Angeles School District to Ban Phones

The LA school board voted to enact a ban to take effect at the beginning of 2025. The resolution requires the board to develop a policy that prohibits smartphones and social media in the hope of helping kids reduce their mental health risks.

The LA school district has close to 600,000 students across a thousand schools. The only school district larger than LA is the New York City school district.

Students surreptitiously use their phones during school classes and use them while walking down the halls.

During the 120-day policy creation period, the California state school district will consider factors such as exceptions to the rules, extra privileges, and the least complicated yet most effective way to implement the new procedures, covering issues such as:

• Phone storage, ex. Lockers or pouches
• Certain times the ban would be in place, ex.Class, lunch
• Different ages of the students
• Different grades
• Physically disabled students
• Students diagnosed with learning disabilities
• Technology used to restrict social media on campus
• Types of devices under the ban, ex. Smart watches

This follows the US Surgeon General’s warning of a youth mental health crisis.

Gallop polls say that US teens spend nearly 5 hours a day on social media. Studies say that teens who use their phones more than three hours a day are more susceptible to suffer from anxiety and other mental health issues.

Florida banned access to social media for the state’s nearly three million students. Other states are working on similar laws.

This year the Florida governor signed another bill (Fla. HB 3) that completely bans children under 14 from social media platforms and requires 14- and 15-year olds to get parental approval. It takes effect on January 1 of next year if the courts do not overturn it on constitutional grounds.

Credit: Cybernews and Cybernews

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