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The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education has voted to ban student use of smartphones and social media during school hours and is expected to unveil an official policy within the next four months. The new rules are expected to be in place by January next year.
The policies would impact the roughly 429,000 students in the district. Previously, the school district's cellphone policies had not been revised since 2011, and its existing social media policy was put in place in 2018.
According to the memorandum from the meeting Tuesday, the school district could also restrict any internet offered from allowing students to access social media on any device, including a computer. Some smartphone exemptions will be allowed, and policies may be different for smaller devices like smartwatches or those with fewer capabilities, like text and voice-only phones.
The school board cites cellphones as a distraction, prohibitive to socialization, and a danger to students' mental health because of ties to increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues, feelings of aggression, and suicidal thoughts. Pew Research finds 72% of US high school teachers see cellphones as a major issue in classrooms.
"I think we're going to be on the vanguard here, and students and this entire city and country are going to benefit as a result," said school board member Nick Melvoin, who proposed the resolution, Reuters reports.
The board voted 5-2 in favor of the ban, but board members Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna voted against the policy. Schmerelson expressed concerns around upholding a smartphone and social media ban effectively.
"I think it's going to be a full-time job being the police of the phone," Schmerelson said.
The Washington Post reported last year that a majority of US schools already bar non-academic cellphone use during the school day, but suggested that this has been difficult to enforce. Regardless, schools in other states like Pennsylvania, Viriginia, and Florida have also taken action toward restricting or banning cellphones. After the LA school district voted on its plans Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a statewide smartphone ban in schools.
Earlier this week, the US surgeon general wrote an essay arguing that social media can be detrimental to adolescents' mental health. To protect them, he's calling for cigarette-like labels on social media apps and sites. But it's unclear what exactly such warning labels might look like—and how such rules might be enforced.