Los Angeles Unified School District will ban cellphones from school day in 2025

I have three kids and wish our school district would do this

Why? Societal pressure is multiple times more impactful on teenage behavior than parents for acute dopamine pumps like this - especially when parents aren’t physically with their kids like in school

I have seen the social outcast aspect of not being connected to text groups for teenage girls it’s pretty isolating

The only way to not be involved in this is to legitimately be a counterculture family or one that has deep and diverse social networks across multi generations that aren’t also addicted to the smart phone system

I’m actually unaware of any groups in west - outside of the Amish - who are rejecting smartphone culture; and even then the Amish face challenges with this

I remember getting special permission to carry a cell phone in school in 2002 because of my mom occasionally needing help at home due to a progressive illness. Only needed to use it once, thankfully, but I wonder if the schools will allow for similar circumstances and how much that's going to be exploited?

Given so many people had no problems plopping their kid in front of an iPad/Phone/etc. since birth, I doubt they'd have problems signing a permission slip for cell phone use in school.

Why wait I wonder, just do it from the start of the school year in August/September.

I hope this works out. It would be a great benefit if it works out. Social media is a vampire.

Realistically though, it seems like a great way to garner animosity of students against their teachers, and teachers against their handlers. Will also teach students how to more effectively and discretely break rules and disrespect power structures.

When my oldest entered elementary school, I was surprised that children were allowed to use their phones in classrooms. When I graduated in the early 2000s, we weren't allowed to have any devices that would be a distraction, and it's hard to imagine a device more distracting than a tiny pocket computer connected to the rest of the world. I hope this sort of ban becomes commonplace. I encourage all of the parents on HN to forward this news to their childrens' school districts.

How did it come to this, where it has to be a top down approach?

Some of my son's teachers have a policy of no phones in class. The ones that enforce it have a bag with pockets hanging on the door.

If the student has a phone when they walk in to the classroom, it goes in one of the pockets. If they get caught with it on them, it's detention. Simple and effective.

Don't understand why this has to be something enforced at the school district level unless the teachers no longer have any authority to run their classrooms

This is just mind blowing to me because the school district I grew up did this in 1998.

School is a distraction from internet use.

This is in the long tradition of banning communication devices for kids:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1988/11/30/beeper-ban-in-scho...

I think this is the best.

Too difficult to enforce. Good luck.

what do they do if there is like a school shooting?