Opinion: Smartphones have silenced kids, and that isn’t a good thing. Hooray for LAUSD’s ban

It was killing Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert that united readers in anger earlier this month. Now, our letter writers are once again united, but this time in praise: With barely any exceptions, they’re writing in approval of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s ban on phones during the school day. Many of the letters come from teachers tired of competing with screens for their students’ attention. This topic has come up before on the letters page, often in discussions on the classroom challenges teachers face.

As the parent of three school-age boys — two of whom are in middle school — I share concerns over smartphone addiction, and so far I have resisted my children’s unceasing requests for their own iPhones.

I wish I could say my concern is based on all the new data and commentary on the toxicity of smartphones to teenage brains, but it isn’t. Really, I’m shocked by how a little more than a decade of smartphone use (read: addiction) has changed my habits and shortened my attention span. Why wouldn’t I protect my children from that?

My phone-less children are outliers. Everyone around them has their own phone — so much that, in my experience, earlier rules against cellphone use at school long ago became unenforceable. Now, with the LAUSD ban, the pendulum is swinging the other way.

To the editor: I just finished my 29th year teaching high school English and would be thrilled if my school district took measures to ban cellphones, as LAUSD is attempting to do.

The phones and AirPods are a constant nuisance. Even though my class policy is that both need to be put away during class, I have to remind students to do so every day. Some refuse to remove their one AirPod because they say they can hear me just fine with it in.

I remember the days when I could not get students to stop talking and quiet down at the start of class. Now, they enter the classroom wearing AirPods and looking at their phones and rarely speak to each other. When I try to engage with them, they don’t respond because they are busy watching videos or scrolling social media. If I finish class a couple minutes early, they immediately take out their phones, and it’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Many students are not interested in talking with each other, and it’s spread into our lessons as well. They struggle to communicate in small groups and even more so in whole-class discussions. It’s because they are used to isolating themselves with their phones and AirPods (or big headphones) and don’t know how to interact with others.

Good for LAUSD recognizing the need to ban cellphones.

Jaime Angell, Torrance

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To the editor: I retired from teaching chemistry and physics at San Pedro High School two years ago. I experienced how smartphones sapped my students’ attention.

Starting in 2004, I had a sturdy, four-drawer toolbox in my classroom with different colored poker chips in each drawer. As students entered class, they placed their phone in a drawer and got a chip as a claim check. Then I would lock up the box with a padlock — no phones for a whole class period. I also made a big show about locking up my own phone.

Students would often tell me in confidence that that was the only time during their entire day they weren’t looking at their phones.

I wholeheartedly support banning phones from high schools. Would parents buy into a ban? Probably no more than 50% of them.

Would teachers be willing to lock up their own phones for the school day? Highly unlikely.

John Reid, San Pedro

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To the editor: As a very-longtime teacher, I agree that restricting cellphones in schools is a healthy move, as was argued at the LAUSD’s recent Board of Education meeting. However, restricting use only during instructional time makes more sense.

In all of the years of experiencing shootings and other campus violence, it makes sense to have those phones stored somewhere in each classroom for use in an emergency. In May 2022, a fourth-grade girl in Uvalde, Texas, was able to call 911 from under her desk.

Yes, phones distract from learning and listening. But having them available for emergency use is a good idea. Parents could also be advised not to call or text their child during class time.

Cheryl Ortega, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I do not believe the banning of cellphone use by students during school hours is going to be the panacea that district officials are hoping for.

There is nothing to stop parents from giving their elementary school-age children a smartphone with unfettered access to an array of age inappropriate social media platforms. And, until social media companies are no longer allowed to shield themselves from liability via federal law, they will continue to peddle their toxic products to our youth, with or without a school cellphone ban.

We went after Big Tobacco for the damage its products inflicted on the health of our citizens; this is no different.

Jason Y. Calizar, Torrance

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To the editor: I think that on balance, a full ban of cellphones from schools is probably a good thing. I know how bad scrolling social media makes me feel, and I don’t see a need for students to be able to contact anyone in the world at any time during the school day.

However, I couldn’t help but chuckle at school board President Jackie Goldberg’s story of a group of high schoolers breaking out their phones to text each other as soon as she sat down with them. Goldberg strangely assumed that the teens were so addicted to their phones that they no longer speak out loud.

Anyone who began using a cellphone before the age of 20 (and, I should think, most people who have ever used one, and also most people who have ever met a teenager) would immediately recognize what was probably happening: The students were texting each other about the adult who just appeared out of nowhere hoping to “informally talk.”

Katelyn Best, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Let’s not forget that our adult actions provide examples for young people. Many parents may agree that kids are addicted to their phones, but so are many adults.

How is the typical student supposed to feel about a ban on phone use when we know that the adults on campus will still be walking the halls checking social media, texting food porn and subjecting their families to endless text chains? Don’t forget the adult TikTok crowd.

Overuse of cellphones is an adult addiction that can hinder family communication and engagement. Many adults are just as addicted to phones as their children.

Chris Damore, Fullerton

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To the editor: I think it is a great idea to limit the use of cellphones in school. However, I also think it would be an administrative nightmare to execute.

I suggest that political leaders get together with the engineers in Silicon Valley and have them develop a way of disabling phones when students are in the classroom. Students would have to register their phones with the school’s administrators, who could enable and disable the phones accordingly.

Cellphones have become an integral part of our lives, and we have to develop smarter ways of using them.

June Thompson, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Cellphones do not belong in schools, learning does. Our youth are becoming zombies, only reacting to the blood of social media to keep them going.

Susan Greenberg, Los Angeles