And that\u2019s how he found himself in Sacramento recently, wearing a suit and tie and sitting in a wooden chair at a small desk, facing nearly a dozen legislators and staff, asking them to support a bill that would prohibit students\u2019 use of cellphones<\/a> for the entire school day for kindergarten through eighth grade.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, learning is not just being interrupted; it\u2019s being completely eroded,\u201d Marwaha, a Newport Beach resident, testified before the Assembly Education Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cHalf of the room is trying to learn, while the other half is trapped, chasing notifications, videos and fake dopamine hits,\u201d Marwaha said. \u201cEven the students who want to focus cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n From Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi, D\u2013Torrance, Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, Assembly Bill 1644 survived a key legislative hurdle last week, passing out of what\u2019s called the \u201csuspense file,\u201d a process of quickly advancing or killing bills with large fiscal impacts.<\/p>\n Originally, the bipartisan bill was set to require \u201cbell-to-bell\u201d smartphone policies through 12th grade, but it has been amended down to only eighth grade. The bill also requires schools to ensure that classroom instruction for kindergarten through eighth grade does not require students to use a smartphone.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea to ban schools in school because the addiction doesn\u2019t automatically stop in the classroom,\u201d Marwaha said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n Kids, he said, ask to go to the bathroom or contact their parents \u2014 excuses to check their phones throughout the day.<\/p>\n He is, though, disappointed that the bill has been scaled back.<\/p>\n Still, it was \u201cgratifying,\u201d Marwaha said, to shake hands with Assembly members in Sacramento, letting them know the cause he\u2019s fighting for is personal.<\/p>\n Gov. Gavin Newsom, just two years ago, urged school districts to restrict the use of smartphones in schools<\/a>. He later signed a law instructing<\/a> school districts, charter schools and county education offices to adopt policies to limit or outright prohibit the use of smartphones by July 1.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more, though, that needs to be done, Marwaha said.<\/p>\n He was pushing for another bill<\/a> \u2014 although it\u2019s already died this year, he said \u2014 that would require the state Department of Education to study the effects of nonconsensual artificial intelligence-generated images (known as deepfakes) on school-aged kids. He wants to see, perhaps, a hotline established eventually for students who are victims of bullying through deepfakes.<\/p>\n This was Marwaha\u2019s first time testifying before a legislative committee in Sacramento, but he\u2019s been involved in other advocacy work, including sitting on the statewide board for the California Association of Student Councils<\/a> under the Department of Education.<\/p>\n Marwaha is interested in politics and political science, he said, but he\u2019d like to go into the economics field one day to \u201cmake the world better for other people, make moral decisions for helping others in the economic world.\u201d<\/p>\n In other news:<\/p>\n \u2022 Another bill<\/a> that survived last week\u2019s suspense file culling is an administrative one meant to help those adopted from other countries. From Sen. Steven Choi, R-Irvine, the bill provides a process for people who were adopted as children from a foreign country to petition, as adults, for their readoption, the legal process of finalizing an adoption back in California.<\/p>\n![\"Sage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/OCR-L-SNAPSHOT-0518-01.jpeg\")
Sage Hill freshman Rishaan Marwaha with Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D\u2013Torrance. The 15-year-old recently testified before legislators in favor of a bipartisan bill that bans smartphones in schools through eighth grade. (Photo courtesy of Rishaan Marwaha)<\/p>\n