Newsom calls for public-school ban on cell-phone use

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday called on public-school districts to implement policies restricting smartphone use in classrooms , citing the reported negative effects of social media on children’s mental health.

“Every classroom should be a place of focus, learning, and growth,” Newsom said in a letter addressed to districts. “Working together, educators, administrators, and parents can create an environment where students are fully engaged in their education, free from the distractions on the phones and pressures of social media.”

The governor lauded school districts that already have blanket policies in place, including the Los Angeles Unified School District. In June, LAUSD became the largest school district in the country to announce a blanket policy banning cell-phone use during school days. The LAUSD Board of Education called on the district to create a comprehensive implementation policy to take effect in January of 2025.

The San Francisco Unified School District follows school-board policy calling for all students’ mobile communication devices to be turned off and put away during school hours, except in the event of emergencies.

“SFUSD recognizes the importance of students being fully present in the classroom,” district spokesperson Laura Dudnick said. “Per our current policy, mobile communication devices must be turned off and put away during class time and passing periods, except in certain circumstances such as health and safety reasons or if the device is being used as part of an instructional activity.”

However, some San Francisco middle schools implement their own procedures and policies that go a step further than the district.

Rori Abernethy, a math teacher at James Denman Middle School, said the school is “ahead of the curve” of Newsom’s call.

“We have had a cell-phone ban during the [school] day for two years now,” she told The Examiner.

Abernethy said the middle school uses Yondr pouches to dissuade cell-phone use. When they arrive at school, students secure their phones in personally assigned Yondr pouches, which are then locked and handed back to them. The pouches are used in some district high schools and middle schools , as well as at concerts, weddings and special events.

It is up to educators to reinforce the rule, though, Abernethy said.

“The big thing is the students know [their cell phone] will be taken if we see it outside the pouch,” she said.

She said the policy isn’t perfect, “but [it] sends the message to students that you can’t have your phone out.”

“Cell-phone addiction is a serious problem,” she said, arguing that the policy encourages “kids to talk to each other more and socialize at lunch.”

Other SFUSD middle schools, such as Presidio Middle School , have standalone policies that mandate students turn off and keep cell phones out of sight during school hours. According to the school’s website, if students are not able to follow the policy, their phones will be taken away and their parents or guardians will be required to come to campus to pick up the phones.

While districts will likely impose blanket cell-phone bans following Newsom’s announcement, it is often up to classroom teachers to police them. A 2023 national survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that teachers were more likely to support cell-phone bans than principals and district leaders.

Elizabeth Statmore, a math teacher at Lowell High School, said the Yondr pouch policy turns “cell-phone access into a power struggle between teachers and students, which drives teenagers to find ways to resist.”

Statmore said a “more extreme technological solution” of locking students out of social media, mobile gaming and TikTok from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days would be more effective. She criticized the current pouch practice in a July op-ed for the website The Voice of San Francisco.

“We need a serious, unbreakable, collective-action solution,” she wrote. “Whatever we decide ought to make smartphones as worthless as bricks during school hours, except for basic calls and texting, or whatever we collectively believe the line should be.”

Last year, city leaders, including Supervisor Myrna Melgar and officials with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, joined a growing chorus of legislators who sought to police or restrict social-media access for youth. But the local agency fell short of implementing a social-media task force after criticism from teens who expressed concerns over privacy if The City were to move forward.

The Examiner reached out to St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, a Jesuit Catholic high school in The City’s Sunset district, and Lick-Wilmerding High School, a private college-preparatory school, requesting the schools’ current cell-phone policies, for a sense of the procedures at San Francisco private schools. Neither responded by press time.