Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

A little more than one month in, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s cell phone ban is getting praise from parents – and hatred from students.  

LAUSD launched its cell phone prohibition on February 18th of this year. It allows schools to design their own policies for banning the use of phones by students on campus. 

After a few weeks into the new policy, LA School Report visited district schools to hear initial reactions to the ban’s enforcement. 

Students had the strongest opinions in opposition.  

“It sucks,” said Sophia, a sophomore at Downtown Magnets High School in downtown L.A., said succinctly of her experience thus far. “We’re all pretty upset.” Sophia’s last name is being withheld because she is a minor. 

Sophia said at her school the rule is strict with no phones or smart devices allowed at any point in the day. Still, she said, kids often sneak their phones during downtime.

L.A. Unified superintendent Alberto Carvalho created the district’s policy for a phone-free school day in response to a resolution approved by the LAUSD school board last June.   

The board said the cell phones disrupted student learning and socialization, referencing studies saying students view their own phone use as an addiction. 

District officials and LAUSD board members have been bullish on the ban’s success. About 50% of schools in the district are using the honor system to enforce it. 

Sophia’s school, Downtown Magnets, allows students to keep the devices in their backpacks, but if they are caught using them they have to put them in magnetic pouches. 

Sophia said her daily routine has changed, since phones are no longer being used at school. 

But, she said, the school’s culture hasn’t changed because of the ban. 

Students aren’t any friendlier. Cliques within the school still stick together, phone or not, Sophia said, and kids who choose not to pay attention in class find ways to tune out without their phones.

Lelani, a student at Alta Vista Innovation High School in Inglewood, said adjusting the ban at her school is as simple as learning to live without a device for a few hours. Lelani’s last name is being withheld because she is a minor.

Lelani said her classmates objected to the phone prohibition at first, but most are now getting used to it. 

“It’s boring, but I get my work done,” she said. 

A majority of parents were for the phone ban when LA School Report reported on the issue in September. Most students opposed it and teachers were split. 

Now those opinions seem even more entrenched. 

Parents still expressed confidence the phone ban’s positive impact would outweigh any drawbacks. 

Darcy Casucci, whose daughter attends Eagle Rock High School in Eagle Rock, said she can see the teen’s “overall mood about school improving.” 

Casucci said she believes having a break from devices during the school day has helped her daughter focus. 

Sarah Columbo, whose two sons attend Eagle Rock, said her children are adjusting easily to the cell phone ban there.  

“It was going to be this big thing, and it really hasn’t been,” said Columbo. 

Columbo said she supports Eagle Rock’s ban on cell phones, but still believes devices can be effectively deployed in the service of learning at schools. 

Her sons, she said, previously used their phones to take useful pictures of notes written by their teachers in class. 

“These tools aren’t going anywhere,” Columbo said of cell phones. “I think it’s about learning to integrate.”