On Sept. 23, Governor Gavin Newsom passed the Phone-Free School Act, requiring California school districts to devise policies to restrict phone usage in schools by July 1, 2026. California school districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District have voted to ban smartphone and social media use during the school day, the act going into effect in 2025. Anthro interviewed Palo Alto High School Principal Brent Kline in his office on Sept. 30 about how the Act would impact Paly.
Listen to the audio for the full interview.
How would phone restrictions be implemented in Paly?
“I have no idea. I mean, to be honest. I think that we need to be thoughtful. I don’t want to jump to conclusions. I want to involve as many different kinds of people. So I know that we had an ad hoc committee that lasted for a certain amount of time. I’m thinking I might do the same thing with cell phones. I can also gather information through the Principal Advisory Committee as a good way to get student input on that. So it’s going to take some conversations and gathering of opinions before we do anything.”
Do you know when this meeting will take place? Have you started planning?
“Well, we have till 2026, so we have a good couple years. The Principal Advisory Committee is already going, so I could use those students as a sounding board, but I think that we’ll probably gather an official team together just so we can get more. I know that it’s the right time to have this conversation. It feels like we’re all ready to kind of give it [cell phones] a break a little bit. You know, put it away. I think that’s natural, teachers adding that to the classroom expectation. I think there’s more teachers this year than last year.”
Is the school’s policy going to be something where they’re taken away for the whole day and they kind of put [them] away in holding or it’s more like a class-by-class basis.
“That’s a great question. I’d rather it be class-by-class, because I’m thinking, there are schools out there that have those magnetic pouches. It’s a system they understand, whether or not you have it locked. I don’t know. To me, that’s a lot of effort to put into something that we could just simply ask people to do. And it’s not just us as the teachers or the school administration, it’s you, students, your family, I mean, your parents or guardians. What’s that conversation like? We all have to be into it and understand the benefits. I think it will allow us to be a little more focused in classes. I think adults have the same problem. I mean, it’s no different to meetings and things that I go to that I’m going to have people on their cell phones.”
What do you think is the difference between, how some teachers are restricting now, versus how it’ll be like in the future?
“Good question. So I think now it’s the teacher who created that expectation. I think when we get to whenever this is fully implemented, I think it needs to be agreed upon throughout the entire school. So with this new policy, this is what we all do. So I think I know that that would be a benefit to our students if you know that the policy is consistent from teacher to teacher. So I would be more in favor of a school-wide policy.”
There’s a lot of controversy from parents, especially due to violent incidents at school, and parents obviously want to be able to be able to contact their students. In Paly, we have a lot of people who order food on their phones. So do you think it’s necessary for students to be able to have their phones, in … breaks, or throughout school when they’re not in class?
“I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I know it’s convenient, and I don’t know if that’s part of the cell phone controversy that we need to tackle. It [the bill] doesn’t say anything about restricting it completely. It says some restrictions. And I think if you’re going to develop a policy where you’re going to make the biggest impact, and that would be in the classrooms. At least today, I don’t feel it’s absolutely necessary to ban them 24/7, or, you know, from the beginning of the day to the end of the day.”
A lot of students bring their own personal MacBooks to school. Do you think that restricting phones will actually curb it if students can just, kind of transfer over to use their MacBooks or whatever?
“Yeah. I mean, that did defeat the purpose, then, right? That might be part of this policy as well. You know, because you all get Chromebooks, right? And I know that when we do tests and things, students are required to use those. And I don’t know if the Chromebooks align with the cell phone policy. They possibly could. But then Chromebook, Mac, your MacBook, you know, where do you stop, you know it’s going to be something else. So that’d be pretty thoughtful. So, do I have a policy, no, but I’m willing to have a conversation.”