Yalda Mirfakhraei
Staff Writer
There’s been some strict new rules introduced in Costa classrooms this year pertaining to students phone’s and their access to them. In previous years, phones have been discouraged to keep on hand during class time, but never monitored as harshly as they have been this 2025-2026 school year. When school first started, students had been presented with many new sets of demanding and strict rules; Among these rules was the newly established phone ban policy. Students were prompted to visit their grades google classroom where they could reach the PDF named, “Mira Costa Cell Phone Policy 2025-2026”. The PDF explains the expectations the school board has for the students in correlation with when and when not to have their devices out. The PDF states that students may not have their phones out during any of their class periods (instructional time). At the beginning of each class, they are expected to place their phones in the designated ‘cell phone pocket holder’, their phones are to remain inside of the pockets for the whole of the class period unless their teachers instruct otherwise, and may retrieve their phones promptly at the end of the period.
The goal of this policy is to promote focus and prevent distractions that the students may face otherwise if allowed to have their phones during the instructional period…as stated in the Mira Costa Cell Phone Policy 2025-2026 PDF, the goal is to, “Limit screen time to maintain focus and reduce distractions”. Another requirement stated by the school is that students are not allowed to photograph or record without permission, that would be seen as an invasion of privacy. Teachers are required to follow through with instructing the students to place their phones in the phone caddies in their classrooms no matter the circumstances, unless phones are absolutely required to be used as tools for educational purposes. Violation of this policy will result in either classroom consequences enforced by the students’ teachers or school consequences enforced by school officials in accordance with the Mira Costa high school behavior discipline matrix, which has been warned about in the previously mentioned PDF, “VIOLATION OF THIS POLICY WILL RESULT IN CLASSROOM AND/OR SCHOOL CONSEQUENCES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MIRA COSTA HIGH SCHOOL BEHAVIOR DISCIPLINE MATRIX.”
The question is if students undergoing the implementation of the policy find that the enforcement of this policy has made any noticeable and positive changes at all to their attention spans, work ethic, and focus. Margo Mueller, a 12th grader at Costa was asked if she had seen a positive change in her classmates attention spans since the ban was enforced, Mueller responded, “Not really. It honestly just feels kinda the same as it always was. People still talk when they’re ‘not supposed to be’ and doze off if they’re bored. And anyways, I don’t think people’s attention spans have anything to do with their phones”. According to Mueller, phones aren’t the root of students’ ability to focus or not. When questioned if she thinks that the school would listen to the students’ opinions on this matter, Mueller shook her head, “Definitely not. Whoever’s making these sorts of decisions isn’t going to listen to what we think. I mean, why would they? They probably would think our opinions are going to try and get them to make decisions that benefit us and disadvantage them”.
Another 12th grader, Nate Jacobs expressed a similar sort of agreement with Mueller’s remarks. When asked if he felt as though he was able to work more reverently since the ban he replied, “No. I’ve always done my work the same way with or without my phone. I don’t think how I work or the accuracy of my answers on assignments or classwork even have anything to do with if my phone is with me or not”.
Although the ban is still set in place and rules haven’t changed since its enforcement, students don’t really think it’s made any difference. Only time will tell if the lack of change will continue for Costa students regarding their work ethic and abilities to focus in response to the policy and its implementation.
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