As MVHS enters the third month of its “off and away” phone policy, the act of dropping phones into numbered phone pouches hanging on classroom walls has become a routine part of students’ school days. As students have adapted to having no access to their phones during instructional time, new opinions and issues have sprung up.

MVHS’ “off and away” policy was enacted this year in accordance with California’s Phone-Free School Act, which governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2024 to require that all school districts create policies restricting cell phone use in class by July 2026. According to Newsom, the law is meant to prevent mental health issues and academic distractions linked to phone usage while students are in school. 

Chinese teacher and World Language Department Lead Zoey Liu says that teachers were notified over the summer about the policy change, and that Principal Ben Clausnitzer gave teachers the option to pre-order phone pouches before the school year started. Liu, who had been using a phone pouch experimentally for half of the previous year after discussions with other teachers in the World Language Department, was happy to see it being implemented broadly.

“We’re now getting support from the whole school,” Liu said. “Because students are so used to using phone pouches in many classes, there’s no complaint, and there’s a habit being developed. Also, way less energy and time is being spent on checking whether students are off task or cheating because of their phones.”

Though at the start, most teachers adjusted well to the new policy, Liu shares that some teachers started facing issues enforcing it after the first few weeks. 

“I’ve heard feedback from other teachers saying that at the beginning, it was all great,” Liu said. “Then slowly, some students started saying, ‘Oh, I forgot to bring my phone.’ Then more and more of them start saying that they forgot to bring their phone, and is that really true? That becomes a new issue.”

From another angle, the “off and away” policy conflicts with the teaching methods of some teachers, like physics teacher Jim Birdsong, who prefers students to have access to their phones as a part of class instruction. In his class, students use their phones to download lab data, take pictures of the board and access Google applications when the school WiFi is slow. For this reason, he opts not to use a phone pouch with an understanding that students will use their phones appropriately, a standard he says students have so far generally respected. 

“I think everyone understands the need for the policy, and I think people are seeing the benefit of it, but it just can’t be a blanket thing,” Birdsong said. “There are schools where you can’t have a phone at all under any circumstances, and that would not work well here.”

Freshman Youheng Zhong and junior Ethan Lin agree with Birdsong that phones can still play a necessary role in classroom environments as educational tools or in cases of unstable WiFi. Going further, Lin believes that phones can sometimes increase social interactions within the classroom during allocated free time, as social media and video games provide a means of engagement for students. He observes that the phone policy has led to a much quieter classroom, and increased his desire to look at his phone after class, defeating the purpose of the policy.

In contrast, Birdsong and Liu have noted that students actually seem to be talking and interacting with one another more naturally. Liu shares that despite her class size doubling compared to last year, they’ve been having much more fun together. 

“I was pleasantly surprised with how both of my Chinese 4 classes this year are having a much better rapport with me than last year,” Liu said. “It’s great. People are fully present, there is less distraction, and they’re more tuned in to each other’s body language, facial expressions and tones instead of paying attention to a screen. Maybe that’s why the classroom culture and the vibe is so much more positive.”

In fact, Liu cites research that having time set away from phones could have long term benefits for students, even outside the classroom. A study published by BMC Medicine found that the less exposure students had to their phones, the better their well-being, which stemmed from benefits like improved sleep and reduced anxiety.

Having read “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt, a book about smartphones and social media’s impact on Gen Z, Liu explains that the phone policy could allow them to develop healthier ways to manage their stress and emotions.

“For some students in MVHS, their phones become a crutch, a numbing system when they’re trying to deal with negative emotions,” Liu said. “It’s not a healthy solution. With the phone policy, students are forced to not be attached to their phones for at least 90 minutes of a block schedule, and they might have to identify that emotion, or find other resources to face it — for example, friends sitting next to them, an adult on campus or just some personal breath work, instead of using their phone as a temporary distraction.”

With this in mind, Liu believes that the phone policy should be taken further, and MVHS could consider implementing stricter policies such as using Yondr, where students have to keep their phones in a locked, monitored pouch, reflected at schools like McDonald High in the Santa Clara Unified School District. However, Zhong believes that a stricter policy could bring potential safety risks in emergency situations, as well as become inconvenient if students forget to collect their phones after classes. 

“If stricter policies are enforced, such as the Yondr pouches seen at other schools, it would also decrease our safety, considering today’s events,” Zhong said. “I personally would find it safer to have phones out in the open or in my backpack, rather than a phone pouch that I myself cannot undo.”

Though there are a variety of opinions on the effectiveness of the current policy, Birdsong shares that its existing flexibility already allows for teachers to adjust it within the classroom, and students will still have adequate access to their phones at school.

“It needs to be reasonable, and there have to be exceptions to it,” Birdsong said. “I think I’m a model in that regard, knowing when to be strict and when to not be. A phone is such a powerful tool. You can’t just give it up, but you can control it. Overall, all the response nationwide about the whole thing I’ve ever heard, is that it’s good. I’m glad that changes have been made.”