The Brief

At Venice High School, students now report to their sixth-period class for the first 10 minutes of the day. They stow their phones in portable metal cases with a clear, locking door.

And retrieve them at the final bell.

The new schedule is part of the Westside high school’s strategy to keep 2,300 students away from their phones, smartwatches, earbuds and other personal technology during the school day.

Dean of students David Galley said about 70 phones were confiscated outside of classrooms on the first day of the new policy.

“The kids we caught, they were all very, ‘Oh my fault. I won't do it again,’” Galley said. “They handed [the phones] over. It was very peaceful.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board voted in June to expand the district’s existing phone ban to include lunch and passing periods (“bell to bell”), and the policy took effect Tuesday.

The district reported no major disruptions in the first week, though educators LAist contacted said several schools are still waiting on their equipment.

The district set aside $7 million to purchase lockers (like those used at Venice High), pouches and other devices to store phones. A district spokesperson said in a statement that about half of schools chose to rely instead on the “honor system” and require students to keep their phones turned off and in their backpacks.

Not a cellphone in sight in math teacher Charles Styrbicki's Venice High classroom.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

David Galley walks the Venice High halls looking for students who haven't yet turned over their cellphones.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

In interviews with LAist, students and educators reported seeing fewer devices on campus, though compliance with the rules varied.

In Jessica Quindel’s data science class at Venice High, just two of about 18 students slid their phones into the numbered foam locker slots Wednesday.

“ If they're self-regulating and keeping their phone in their backpacks all day, that gets to the same benefit,” Quindel said. “We're not here to be like police officers. We just really want kids to connect and put their phones away so they can learn and connect with each other.”

Parents say ‘we are struggling at home’

The vast majority of teenagers — 95% — carry smartphones.

Board members cited rising concerns about the effect of phones and social media on youth mental health, bullying and distraction from classroom instruction.

Parent Norma Chávez said her “well-behaved” 13-year-old daughter has gotten her phone confiscated in the past.

“We are struggling at home to get the kids to stop using" phones, Chávez said. She hopes that a stricter policy at school will make it easier to limit screen time at home.

Chávez, who volunteers at Richard E. Byrd Middle School in Sun Valley and leads the Parent Teacher Student Association there, is also worried about the academic impact of smartphones in the classroom. The majority of students at the school are not reading or meeting math standards for their grade level.

"During the pandemic, the phone was their friend," Venice High School Principal Yavonka Hairston-Truitt said. "As it became the friend, it became difficult to part from friend. Difficult to go five minutes without looking at friend."

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

“We have to try anything we can so that we can help our kids improve their grades and do well in school,” Chávez said.

But some students LAist interviewed say the new policy strips them of a useful tool and doesn’t address underlying challenges in public education, including a lack of resources for extracurricular activities.

Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies freshman Miles, 15, said that prior to the policy, he’d use his phone to take photos of assignments and when he’d finished his work.

“For day-to-day school life, it’s just really, really annoying,” he said.

“I think banning our phones just makes us more focused on our phones and missing our phones. If they want to get us more focused on our education, they have to make the education more interesting to us.”

He said that although the district spent millions of dollars to implement the restrictions, students have to raise funds to pay for band trips that include clinics where he can practice trumpet and ample time to socialize with his peers.

“It makes it a lot less fun when we have to jump through all these hoops to go to the places that we want to go,” Miles said.

Bravo Medical Magnet High School college advisor and parent Victoria Montes said students at the Boyle Heights campus were previously allowed to use their phones, with educator permission. Common tasks included scanning QR codes to sign into the campus college center or download information from prospective schools.

“I just wish that we could teach students how to use a tool rather than just take it away,” Montes said.

Venice High School math teacher and instructional coach Jessica Quindel said she was excited to see a student pull out a book in their homeroom class on the second day of the new policy. "I haven't seen a book in so long because they take out their phones," she said.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

Venice High sophomore Sophia, 15, said instead of limiting access to technology, teachers can capture students’ attention by changing up the school day. For example, her English teacher sometimes takes the class to the school’s garden.

“There's other ways that you can re-ground yourself in a classroom without having your property or like something being stripped away from you like that,” Sophia said.

‘You hear students talking to other students’

At Garfield High School students were already banned from bringing phones on campus and will now have to store them in “Cellphone Airbnb” boxes (once their shipment arrives) at the start of each class.

Elizabeth Ruff, who teaches English at the East L.A. high school, supports the move to keep phones away from students during class. But she's concerned about how much time enforcing the new policy will consume.

An agreement between the district and the teachers union about the new policy pledges to make an effort to “minimize the impact to instructional time.”

"Anytime you implement a big sweeping change like this, there are going to be hiccups that are frustrating,” Ruff said. "If we can try to be patient with one another and reflect on what's going well and work to improve what's not going well, I’m hopeful that the end result will be a better learning environment for our students.”

Among the more manageable struggles students mentioned are figuring out what time it is and where to meet up with friends for lunch or after school.

“I found it to be a little annoying for sure, but it's nothing I can't, like, work out,” said Cyrus, 17, a senior at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies in Mid-City.

He said he’s seen fewer phones on campus since the school started using the locking pouches.

“People are definitely communicating more,” he said. “You hear students talking to other students … rather than just people being isolated on their phones.”

The Los Angeles World Cup host committee has quietly posted its guidance on human rights after months of speculation over where the plan was and when it would be published.

Advocates had pushed the committee, an arm of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, to produce its plan. But now that it's out, they're not satisfied with what they're seeing.

The human rights guidance is required by FIFA and outlined on the host committee's website. It includes a list of online resources including where to file complaints with various local and state level agencies and a summary of local, state and federal laws protecting human and civil rights. The committee is also touting a partnership with L.A. County in which people can call 211 to report a concern during the tournament.

"Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” Stephanie Richard, director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School, said in a statement. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers."

The human rights document also skirts fears around ICE and its potential presence at the tournament and surrounding celebrations. Todd Lyons, the agency's head, said earlier this year that ICE's investigatory branch will play a key role in security for the tournament.

But ICE and immigration enforcement aren't mentioned on the host committee's web page on human rights or in its outline of its approach to human rights. "Immigration status" only gets a mention in the list of existing anti-discrimination laws.

"It certainly could have been much stronger," Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said of the plan. She added that her organization participated in a roundtable on the plan, and she was disappointed ICE and recent immigration sweeps weren't mentioned in the resulting document.

"In order for all of this to happen, immigrant workers are part of it," she said of the World Cup. "Your hotel workers, your service workers, stadium workers, drivers." 

LAist reached out to spokespeople for the host committee for comment via email, phone and text, but did not hear back in time for publication. FIFA's press team also did not respond to an email from LAist.

According to the host committee's website, the human rights plan is the result of coordination with the city and county of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood, and 14 roundtable discussions held in the fall of 2025.

"As a non-profit organization, the Host Committee’s role is primarily and necessarily focused on aligning and collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations," the document sums up the committee's approach.

The plan also promises more actions, including "Know Your Rights" training for L.A. residents and visitors and "Know Your Responsibilities" training for businesses and vendors. The committee also says it will develop a "rapid response" strategy to respond to potential problems at the tournament.

Available details on those plans were scant. And with the tournament just 30 days away, labor unions and community groups are continuing to voice concerns about potential ICE presence at SoFi Stadium and other potential consequences of the tournament coming to town.

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave itself more time to consider a national ban on telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Samuel Alito extended an earlier order he issued by three more days, so rules for prescribing mifepristone online or through the mail remain in effect through Thursday at a minimum.

The case at issue

The tumult over the future of telemedicine access to mifipristone started on May 1 with a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling re-instituted prescribing rules from before the pandemic that required patients to receive mifepristone in person in a doctor's office or clinic.

The Food and Drug Administration determined that the rule was medically unnecessary in 2021. The state of Louisiana sued last fall, arguing that telemedicine access undermines the state's abortion ban.

What is telemedicine abortion?

The telemedicine abortion process starts with a patient connecting with a healthcare provider on the phone or online. If the patient is eligible, that provider can prescribe two medications — mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol. Patients can pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy, or providers can mail the drugs to a patient's home.

That access is a big part of the reason why the number of abortions nationally has actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Now, most abortions in the U.S. use this combination of medications, and one quarter happen via telemedicine.

After the 5th Circuit ruling, some providers said they would continue offering telemedicine access to abortion medication using a different protocol that involves higher doses of misoprostol and no mifepristone.

Researchers say that method is just as safe and effective, but tends to cause more pain for patients and more side effects, like nausea and diarrhea. Misoprostol has other medical uses, such as treating gastric ulcers and hemorrhage, and has been on the market longer than mifepristone. It is likely to remain fully accessible, even if mifepristone is restricted.

Since the FDA's prescribing rules for medications apply to the whole country, a change to the rules about how mifepristone can be accessed has national impact. That means it affects states with constitutionally-protected access to abortion, states with criminal bans, like Louisiana, and all states in between.

States' rights

Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states submitted an amicus brief in this case, writing that the appeals court decision put the policy choices of states with bans above the choices of states "that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care."

There are also stakes related to the power of FDA and other expert agencies to set rules. While the Trump administration's FDA did not respond to the Supreme Court's request for briefs, a group of former leaders of the agency, who served under mainly Democratic and some Republican presidents, wrote about this in an amicus brief.

They defended the FDA's process in approving the medication and modifying the rules for prescribing it, and say the appeals court decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."

Copyright 2026 NPR