When the cellphone ban was first implemented, sophomore Victoria Lopez thought the fallout would be worse than expected. Now that a month has passed, she hasn’t felt much of a difference.
“To be honest, I never really texted people because I always had friends in class,” Lopez said. “I just talk to them normally. People make a big deal out of it but it’s not that big of a deal.”
Los Angeles Unified School District’s cellphone ban went into effect districtwide on Feb. 18.
This ban is enforced at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School with the use of Yondr pouches, where students are required to place their phones alongside other wireless devices, such as earbuds, smartwatches and smart glasses. There are unlocking stations in the front office and the rear of the school. All phones are required to be put away inside the pouch by 8:25 a.m. whether or not the student is inside the school building. Although the cellphone ban has strict implementations, students such as freshman Julian Gacria believe that it hasn’t had much of an effect on campus.
“Nothing’s really changed,” Garcia said. “I’ve seen a lot of people in conversations more and participate in more interesting topics. It just feels unnecessary. People secretly don’t follow the phone ban and it’s a waste of thousands of dollars just for this little thing.”
In a survey that The Pearl Post posted to Schoology and Instagram, 18 of 41 students who replied said that it was difficult to adjust to the phone ban while 11 of those students found it easy. The remaining 12 students had a neutral stance. All 10 teachers who responded to the survey said that the phone ban helped reduce distractions during their lessons.
“The ban has been amazing for attention in my classroom,” said one teacher who responded to the survey. “I have had very little resistance to it from most students. I realize it’s not practical to let kids have access to their phones during lunch – but frankly I would not care if they had access outside class as long as it was never out once in the classroom. In my classroom, I have a zero tolerance ban and it has been amazingly effective in both classroom management and student attention.”
For staff members, such as Psychiatric Social Worker Joanne Tuell, the cellphone ban has been good for students since it was implemented. She has seen shyer students at school who spent their lunchtime on their phones interact more with other students.
“Initially, students were really upset that they had to put away their phones,” Tuell said. “I think for the most part, kids have adjusted and gotten used to it. I hope it allowed kids to pay better attention in class and engage with their peers more.”
