As we roll into a new year, California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, has pushed out a few new additions to California’s laws. One of these is a statewide phone policy within California school districts.

Dinuba High School has its own fair share of cell phones on campus, and teachers have their own policies regarding them, separate from those set by the district. Most teachers ask students to store their phones and return them at the end of class, which helps students focus on schoolwork rather than what’s happening on X (formerly Twitter) and Snapchat, or what’s currently trending on TikTok or Instagram.

But will this change? 

Various government sources have made it clear that by July 1, 2026, schools statewide must enforce either a limit or a complete prohibition on students using cell phones during classes. Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3216 in the past year, and it was only made public at the beginning of this month.  However, the question remains: Is California safe enough to completely limit cell phones in schools?

An estimated 28 school shootings in California were reported in 2025 alone, and a total of 236 school shootings have happened between 2020 and 2024 through 2020. Each of these incidents left students and teachers who are loved ones to people outside the educational zone. People are taken away from their loved ones by the hands of others countless times; a school is no place for such a tragedy to happen within.

Banning phones in schools, or even limiting their use, does nothing but keep a student or an adult on that school’s grounds from telling family they’re okay or from even saying goodbye. It also restricts the call for help if local authorities have no idea that something like this is going on.

People’s lives have been taken by others who seek revenge or by people who have been bullied either through social media (cyberbullying) or physically. Or, it could even be at the hands of an adult/former student of that school for reasons that are either mostly unknown or from things that could have happened to them during their time at that school that they never got Justice for and decided to take it into their own hands.

Yes, students should focus on schoolwork and avoid spending their class time on social media or texting their friends. But they shouldn’t be completely banned from school grounds. Schools, even outside California, have started using a pouch called a Yondr Pouch that locks a student’s phone inside, allowing it to be taken out only one way. This pouch makes it nearly impossible for students to call for help or contact family members about their whereabouts if a school shooting were to happen.