The Long Beach Unified School District will begin enforcing a policy restricting cell phone use across all campuses on Monday.<\/p>\n
The policy, adopted by the LBUSD board of trustees last September<\/a>, requires students in transitional kindergarten through eighth grade to turn off cell phones and personal electronic devices all day. High schoolers will be prohibited from using phones during class. Phones are banned in restrooms, locker rooms and on field trips across all grades.<\/p>\n Some exceptions apply, and students can use phones during emergencies, when medically necessary and in accordance with individualized education programs or 504 plans.<\/p>\n Already, many schools have implemented the policy and reported widespread success, according to a spokesperson for the district.<\/p>\n Principal Eric Cabacungan piloted a no-phone policy his first year at Stephens Middle School. While supervising lunch, he noticed that students were physically present but barely interacting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these students are on their phones all the time around their friends, then their presence is largely in the digital world,\u201d Cabacungan said in a video released by the district<\/a>. (The district\u2019s media team declined to connect the Long Beach Post with principals to hear about their experience with the rollout of this policy.)<\/p>\n Cabacungan restricted phones during lunch and saw an immediate positive change in how students engaged with each other. Cabacungan shared these observations with parents, 84% of whom said in a survey that they would support a phone ban, which Stephens Middle School rolled out shortly after. Students were not happy at first, yet they\u2019re seeing the benefits and starting to buy in, Cabacungan said.<\/p>\n Indeed, district administrators and school board members said they adopted and implemented the policy with the hope that limiting phones in schools would reclaim student attention, boost performance, reduce cyberbullying and increase overall well-being. In particular, the policy points to<\/a> the addictive and harmful effects of social media, including anxiety, depression, unsafe online behaviors and stunted social-emotional development.\u00a0<\/p>\n In August 2024, Superintendent Tony Thurmond called<\/a> on schools to limit phones, doubling down on state legislation that went into effect six years ago and empowered school districts to adopt phone policies.<\/p>\n \u201cOur responsibility to protect young people from harm includes establishing clear limits on their access to smartphones at school,\u201d Thurmond said in a press release.<\/p>\n Districts are responding. The Los Angeles Unified School District adopted a \u201cbell-to-bell\u201d phone ban for all grades, which is harsher than LBUSD\u2019s policy.<\/p>\n The district said that parents and students were reminded of the policy\u2019s enforcement in emails and texts via the school messaging system, though the district declined to provide those communications to the Post.<\/p>\n Though some parents are hopeful about the policy, concerns surfaced, too. Laurel Cadiz said her daughter, a ninth grader at Millikan High School who has anxiety and ADHD, uses her phone to contact Cadiz when she is anxious or about to have a panic attack. Her IEP allows her to step out of class to take a break, but it doesn\u2019t guarantee she can have her phone. Without that means of communication, Cadiz worries her daughter may just end up in the nurse\u2019s office asking to go home. The ban \u201cwill definitely affect neurodivergent children way more,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Students themselves have taken a nuanced view, according to interviews compiled by <\/a>The562.org<\/a>. They realize phones can be a distraction, but they worry about being able to contact their parents and pointed out phones have been used by teachers in the classroom\u00a0 to let students \u201cview instructional YouTube videos that are blocked on their school computers, or to listen to music while taking a test.\u201d<\/p>\n