Have you ever had your cell phone taken away from you in school?  Left confused and upset thinking you broke no rules?  There are reasons why you had your phone taken away from you, and it’s not entirely your fault.  Back in 2019, a bill was formed which would allow school officials to ban the use of cell phones on school grounds. However, it is completely up to each school district to decide whether or not to apply these rules.  Per PVUSD Board Policy, “ The governing board of each school district, or its designee, may regulate the possession or use of any electronic signaling device. Devices that operates through the transmission or receipt of radio waves, paging and signaling equipment” are the main targets of this proposed law.

The founder of the Cell Phone ban is  Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi.  He would push his law to the legislator & Governor Gavin Newsom for approval. Both the Legislator and Newsom would proceed to sign off on this bill allowing it to go into effect and become a proper law on January 1st, 2020. Any students K-12 caught using their cell phones on school grounds would have them confiscated.

What would happen after you get your phone taken away? Once you get your phone taken away, it will then be transported to the main office. You will be unable to access your device until the end of school and be given a warning to keep your phone in your backpack by school officials. However, students could use their phones in cases of emergencies or with the teacher’s permission for class work. Besides that, there should be no other reason a phone should be seen out on campus.

Al Muratsuchi created this law with the intent to stop distractions in and out of class. Based on studies done, students who have unrestricted access to their phones have worse behavior in class and are more likely to be distracted. Al Muratsuchi believed that stopping the use of cellphones in school would help stop cyberbullying, helping students who struggle with anxiety and depression.  The law also prevented ways that students could get distracted or go off-topic.

I decided to have a conversation with fellow classmate Logan Moyle to see how they felt about this law. Logan stated, “ It’s weird because at my old school,we didn’t have this policy.” When asked if the law was made for better or worse, Logan said, “ I feel like it was made for the better but turned out to be for the worse.”  Finally, when asked if he wanted the rule to change back to what it was originally, Logan responded with, “I want things to change back to what they were before this.”