{"id":7456,"date":"2026-05-18T14:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7456"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T14:01:24","slug":"oc-teen-asks-california-lawmakers-to-ban-smartphones-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=7456","title":{"rendered":"OC teen asks California lawmakers to ban smartphones in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sage Hill freshman Rishaan Marwaha watches his peers scrolling, constantly, on their smartphones. The 15-year-old admits that he, too, was once a little addicted to his own phone before setting up a screen time block to limit his Instagram usage.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump moves to dismiss $10B suit over leak of tax returns after reports of a resolution<\/a><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s how he found himself in Sacramento recently, wearing a suit and tie and sitting in a wooden chair at a small desk, facing nearly a dozen legislators and staff, asking them to support a bill that would prohibit students\u2019 use of cellphones for the entire school day for kindergarten through eighth grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, learning is not just being interrupted; it\u2019s being completely eroded,\u201d Marwaha, a Newport Beach resident, testified before the Assembly Education Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of the room is trying to learn, while the other half is trapped, chasing notifications, videos and fake dopamine hits,\u201d Marwaha said. \u201cEven the students who want to focus cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi, D\u2013Torrance, Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, Assembly Bill 1644 survived a key legislative hurdle last week, passing out of what\u2019s called the \u201csuspense file,\u201d a process of quickly advancing or killing bills with large fiscal impacts.<\/p>\n

Originally, the bipartisan bill was set to require \u201cbell-to-bell\u201d smartphone policies through 12th grade, but it has been amended down to only eighth grade. The bill also requires schools to ensure that classroom instruction for kindergarten through eighth grade does not require students to use a smartphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great idea to ban schools in school because the addiction doesn\u2019t automatically stop in the classroom,\u201d Marwaha said in a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Kids, he said, ask to go to the bathroom or contact their parents \u2014 excuses to check their phones throughout the day.<\/p>\n

He is, though, disappointed that the bill has been scaled back.<\/p>\n

Still, it was \u201cgratifying,\u201d Marwaha said, to shake hands with Assembly members in Sacramento, letting them know the cause he\u2019s fighting for is personal.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom, just two years ago, urged school districts to restrict the use of smartphones in schools. He later signed a law instructing school districts, charter schools and county education offices to adopt policies to limit or outright prohibit the use of smartphones by July 1.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

There\u2019s more, though, that needs to be done, Marwaha said.<\/p>\n

He was pushing for another bill \u2014 although it\u2019s already died this year, he said \u2014 that would require the state Department of Education to study the effects of nonconsensual artificial intelligence-generated images (known as deepfakes) on school-aged kids. He wants to see, perhaps, a hotline established eventually for students who are victims of bullying through deepfakes.<\/p>\n

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This was Marwaha\u2019s first time testifying before a legislative committee in Sacramento, but he\u2019s been involved in other advocacy work, including sitting on the statewide board for the California Association of Student Councils under the Department of Education.<\/p>\n

Marwaha is interested in politics and political science, he said, but he\u2019d like to go into the economics field one day to \u201cmake the world better for other people, make moral decisions for helping others in the economic world.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other news:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Another bill that survived last week\u2019s suspense file culling is an administrative one meant to help those adopted from other countries. From Sen. Steven Choi, R-Irvine, the bill provides a process for people who were adopted as children from a foreign country to petition, as adults, for their readoption, the legal process of finalizing an adoption back in California.<\/p>\n

parents or adoption agencies to submit readoption paperwork by the time they are 16 years old. However, that 2019 bill doesn\u2019t address those who were adopted long before, a fact sheet for Choi\u2019s bill said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time an adoptive parent in California fails to finalize their child\u2019s intercountry adoption, the adoptee is never issued a delayed registration of birth from the State Registrar to prove they are a legal U.S. resident,\u201d Choi said in an analysis of the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter decades of adoptive parents failing to finalize foreign adoptions, tens of thousands of former adoptees are adults living in the United States without necessary identification or documentation, vulnerable to possible deportations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The bipartisan bill from Choi, which counts fellow Orange County Sens. Kelly Seyarto and Tom Umberg as co-authors, would allow anyone of any age to file a readoption petition on their own behalf if their parent or adoption agency failed to do so.<\/p>\n

\u2022 An effort to establish a new crime that penalizes an adult who coerces a minor to exploit, groom, harass or harm another minor also cleared the appropriations hurdle last week. Someone found guilty of this could be punished as a misdemeanor or felony, according to the bill text.<\/p>\n

From Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, the bill is backed by the Orange County Department of Education and the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Department.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s opposed by the ACLU California Action and other civil liberties and criminal justice reform groups.<\/p>\n

Read more Wall Street edges lower, oil prices volatile after Trump warns the Iran \u2018clock is ticking\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addiction to phones, the Sage Hill freshman said, doesn’t stop at the classroom door. 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