This school banned cellphones six years ago. Teachers — and many kids — couldn’t be happier.

Sam Gauntt, News From The States

SAN MATEO, Calif. – On a cool Friday morning in April, the halls of California’s San Mateo High School were full of students chatting, running to class or trying to find their friends.

But one common sight in high schools across the country was and always is absent from the halls of San Mateo: cellphones.

“When you look at the crowd, kids are not buried in their phone,” said Yvonne Shiu, the school’s principal. “They have grown to value being in the moment.”

Students at the public high school about 20 minutes south of San Francisco have been prohibited since 2019 from using their cellphones while in school — from bell to bell. Schools nationwide, including some in Maryland, are now increasingly imposing such bans, but San Mateo was one of the earliest and largest schools in the country to implement a complete ban on cellphones during school hours.

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