Published March 4, 2025
BY NICOLE MIRSKI
In light of Governor Newsom signing Assembly Bill 3216, the Phone-Free School Act, and Carmel High School’s lack of an all-encompassing rule when it comes to cell phone use during class, the question of what will happen in regards to regulation is a pressing matter.
Currently, CHS doesn’t have firm regulations on the use of cellular devices, only that “it is up to teacher discretion as to whether or not cell phones can be used, and to what degree, in each class,” according to the CHS student handbook. Leaving the policy-making to the teachers has led to a variety of attempted solutions that may not always work in a classroom setting. One of the most common is the cell phone pocket holders that typically hang on a wall and provide a designated space for students to put their phones away during class. These can be effective, but the method isn’t implemented throughout the school and even in classrooms where they are utilized, a majority of them aren’t enforced.
According to a 2024 National Education Association poll, 90% of teachers support the push to prohibit phones during instructional hours. Their reasons typically include that they can be distracting and “disruptive to classroom instruction,” as the CHS handbook says.
Gov. Newsom’s Phone-Free School Act states that all California schools must have some school-wide regulation on cell phones during school hours that limits or prohibits their use before July 2026. The best option for CHS would be to place regulations that disallow students from accessing them during class time. This should exclude break, lunch or passing periods, but all phones should be in a designated location by the time the bell rings.
Obviously, there are exceptions to Newsom’s rule, and these are laid out in California Education Code section 48901.7. These exceptions are that students can always use their phones in a case of emergency, when a teacher or administrator gives direct permission to do so or if a physician deems it necessary for a student’s health.
Parents have argued that students should have their phones on their person at all times in case of an emergency, but law enforcement agencies argue that it can actually escalate the danger. At Bedgrove Junior School, an ambulance was actually blocked from using an emergency entrance because of a buildup of parent cars in the parking lot. The National School Safety and Security Services later stated that in a time of emergency, phones can drive attention away from proper protocol and can accelerate panic throughout the community.
A schoolwide total phone ban is also a possibility; however, it’s not the best option for CHS. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California and the second largest in the nation, did try this and implemented a complete ban on Feb. 18 in order to improve the educational value of the classrooms, but this is not an effective policy because in addition to being difficult to enforce, there isn’t a good reason to ban the use of cellular devices during breaks from classes. Breaks and lunches are meant to be a time for students to refuel and rejuvenate, and if they believe that includes their phones, so be it.
To deal with the Wild West that is phones in classrooms, there needs to be enforced regulations. Seeing students do anything from playing video games to taking pictures of tests and quizzes has made it obvious that they shouldn’t have access to their phones during class time. It’s distracting to everyone around them, and it doesn’t create a valuable learning environment.
