Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Mobile Device Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Students and board back stricter mobile‑device limits during school day; district to refine policy
Summary
Students and board members at Laguna Beach Unified described academic and mental‑health harms from phone use; the board discussed age‑differentiated rules, enforcement approaches and parent engagement and asked staff to return with implementation recommendations.
A broad discussion of mobile communications policy occupied the board’s Sept. 12 session, with students, staff and trustees debating age‑appropriate rules and enforcement.
Student board representatives Jaden Huang and Kate Hennessy summarized student outreach: they said they interviewed roughly 20 students and ran a survey of juniors and seniors; "90% of the students that we interviewed said that it did have a moderate to extreme impact on personal body image and emotional health," Hennessy reported. Student respondents largely supported limiting phone use during the school day and favored caddy/cubby systems many teachers already use.
Board members asked that any district policy distinguish age levels (elementary, middle, high school), make parents partners in implementation and ensure consistent enforcement across sites. Superintendent Dr. Viloria noted the district has administrative regulations in place and emphasized enforcement is a primary challenge.
Technical and safety concerns were raised by trustees: one member asked staff to check that mobile hotspots or students’ devices are not being used to bypass district filtering. Staff said middle schools are moving to proactive measures (pouches/cubbies) and said exemptions exist for medical or IEP‑related needs.
A quote: "If students are bringing their own devices, their own computers onto the middle school campus, we need to address that," Dr. Viloria said, noting the district can block activity on district Chromebooks but not students’ personal devices.
Next steps: the board asked staff to refine the draft language, include parent outreach and return with recommended implementation steps and an enforcement plan, and to monitor the middle‑school rollout of caddy/cubby systems that staff said are showing some success.
