In an unexpected turn of events, California governor, Gavin Newsom, signed into law Assembly Bill 3216, or the Phone-Free School Act, on September 24, 2024, requiring schools to either ban or limit the use of cellphones by July 1st, 2026 in order to promote a better learning environment for students. While people such as parents and teachers are more than likely to support this bill, Mayfair’s students have already begun to express their disdain for this new law.
The biggest argument that students made against this law is the handling of cellphones during emergency situations. As of writing this, there has not been a definitive way that Mayfair has stated that they will handle implementing the law, so there is still an air of uncertainty regarding the subject. Because of this, students are concerned that they will not have proper access to their phones in the event of things such as a lockdown or other emergency situations. Additionally, students expressed that regardless of the way that Mayfair chooses to implement this ban, it will in turn encourage students to act with more stealth when it comes to their devices. Even now, there are many ways that students sneak their devices around watching eyes, so it would be to nobody’s surprise that more methods will be discovered in order to bypass this ban.
As previously stated, this law is set to go into effect in 2026, so there is still some time for Mayfair to implement this law. However, based on the opinions gathered by some of Mayfair’s alumni, there is likely to be some form of impasse between Mayfair administration and the students. Only time will tell how this law will be rolled out and just how much better or worse the environment of Mayfair will become once this law is implemented.
Image courtesy of Raw Pixel
Comments