A year ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) banned phones across its schools, under the belief that phones were hurting students’ mental health. Psychiatric School Worker Joanne Tuell thinks that they were right.
“I hope that it stays because we all, staff included, need more personal connections,” Tuell said.
The policy was instituted across LAUSD on Feb. 18, 2025. It was part of a statewide effort to improve mental health among students and fight phone addiction. Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS)’s Local School Site Council made the decision to enforce it through students putting their phones in Yondr pouches.
When this was implemented, students were immediately unhappy with the new policy and many were quick to criticize it. Junior Jayden Orozco has mixed feelings toward the phone ban.
“I still find it annoying we have to put it in the pouch every morning and it has to be checked,” Orozco said.
Some educators on campus, such as Librarian Alain Cruz, approve of the phone ban. Cruz believes the ban brought improvements to the school community overall.
“As a librarian, I see more kids interacting socially, conversations happening, playing board games, checking out books, picking up word searches,” Cruz said. “From the teaching perspective, it’s much less of a distraction than in the past 2-3 years.”
There has been criticism of the ban as being unnecessary, inconvenient and a waste of money. Despite this, LAUSD has continued the policy, believing it to be beneficial for students because it fosters more interactions between students, instead of them being on their phones all the time. School Climate Advocate Ruiz, who checks students for Yondr pouches at the front of school every morning, similarly says it is positive.
“I would say it’s a little bit inconvenient,” School Climate Advocate Magaly Ruiz said. “I think it’s annoying for (students) to have to carry the pouch and make sure you don’t lose the pouch and it takes time to lock it in the morning and unlock it at the end of the day, but I feel like the pros outweigh the cons.”
Last year, the school staff did not enforce the phone ban as strongly, according to Ruiz and even today, some students don’t follow the rules. Magnet Coordinator James Morrison, Counselor Virginia Morales and Ruiz watch at the front to ensure students have their phones in their pouches.
The phone ban remains in effect a year later. However, sophomore Brenden Rosenthal doesn’t believe that the district-wide phone ban will stay permanently due to safety concerns.
“Phones are really important in schools and especially with education, where you can do a lot with phones and how you can educate people using them,” Rosenthal said. “I also think that, in situations like how we had a gun on campus and a student bringing a knife, students need to be able to communicate with their parents and let them know that their safety at school is being harmed.”
Online Editor-in-Chief Tania Lopez and Visual Editor Alex Salcedo contributed to the reporting of this article.
