Imperfect Paradise: Did the cell phone ban in high schools work?
California Love
LAist Studios
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 18 June 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On February 18th, 2024, the LA Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. Now that it’s the end of the school year, we head to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went.
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Transcript
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| 0:33.3 | Hey, this is in Perfect Paradise. |
| 0:35.7 | I'm Antonia Seri-Hido. |
| 0:39.7 | Good morning gondos. Yes, it is the second day of the cell phone policy. And once again, we got this. |
| 0:52.1 | And today we're talking about cell phone vans in school. |
| 0:55.2 | So right now, you are at your home room. |
| 0:58.4 | You are powering down your phones. |
| 1:00.5 | You are placing them in the assigned slot. |
| 1:02.9 | I like to remind you if your cell phone is seen any time during the day, it is subject to be confiscated. |
| 1:10.6 | I'm here with education reporter Mariana Dale. |
| 1:15.3 | Hey, Antonia. |
| 1:16.8 | So, as you heard, that was the principal of Venice High School announcing the cell phone ban over their PA system back in February. |
| 1:25.0 | Gondos is short for the school's mascot, the gondoliers. Adorable. |
| 1:29.0 | So this push to ban cell phones in schools has been gaining steam in red and blue states alike |
| 1:34.5 | from Louisiana to California. But this year, the cell ban push came to our own backyard when the |
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