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English instructor Jocelyn Medawar has seen a brand new vibe at Harvard-Westlake Faculty this faculty 12 months: Higher faculty college students are chatting within the halls and greet her as they enter class.
They now not have their “faces glued to a display,” mentioned Medawar, who has taught on the elite non-public faculty for 35 years. “The entire feeling on campus has usually modified.”
At a time when faculty cellphone bans or limits are the regulation in California public colleges and in a minimum of 34 different states — a rising nationwide motion to get distracted college students off their units and centered on studying — Harvard-Westlake has discovered a solution to implement their restrictions by turning to — what else? — a cell app that partially locks down telephones and flags the entrance workplace when college students try to interrupt the principles.
College students in grades 10 by means of 12 should set up a custom-programmed app referred to as “Opal” that blocks a listing of social media and gaming apps that Harvard-Westlake educators have recognized for now as scofflaws throughout faculty hours: TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, X, Discord, Threads, Pokémon Go, Roblox, Conflict Royale and Reddit.
College students on the Studio Metropolis campus are allowed to maintain their cellphones with them and may use them to contact mother and father or hail a experience solely in an administrator’s workplace.
College students stroll to class at Harvard-Westlake Faculty in Studio Metropolis. A QR code signal permits them to test of their cellphones earlier than class.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Instances)
But when a scholar disables Opal to make use of a banned app, faculty officers are notified on an workplace dashboard. The app represents one technique designed to shore up the loopholes which have emerged in different common enforcement instruments, together with lockable magnetic cellphone pouches that may be damaged into or outright bans that sneaky college students skirt.
After the primary semester underneath the brand new guidelines, Harvard-Westlake faculty leaders reported promising outcomes — and a few college students mentioned they now not are reflexively reaching for his or her telephones and are sleeping higher.
“The general course of … has made an influence,” mentioned Jordan Church, dean of scholars at Harvard-Westlake higher faculty.
Throughout lunch, “college students are engaged,” he added. “They’re speaking with one another, they’re having enjoyable, having fun with their time, and cellphones aren’t part of that course of anymore.”
Safety guard Earl Saunders checks scholar telephones as they enter Harvard-Westlake Faculty.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Instances)
Telephones keep in backpacks
As college students arrived on campus on a latest morning, they pointed their cellphone cameras at giant QR code posters positioned round entrances. The scanned code blocks the forbidden apps till the tip of the varsity day.
Earlier than Opal, the higher faculty didn’t have a coverage governing cellphone utilization, with academics allowed to set their very own class guidelines. Throughout free durations, college students can be distracted by their telephones, as a substitute of working or participating with friends, Church mentioned.
A number of college students mentioned they most popular their faculty’s method over the magnetically locked Yondr pouches utilized in L.A. Unified and different giant public faculty districts, as a result of their telephones should not fully shut down.
“Locking away telephones could possibly be a harmful mistake,” mentioned sophomore Miro Katan, who beforehand frightened pouches might hinder him from texting his mother and father throughout an emergency.
A number of college students, together with sophomore Alexander Ahn, repeatedly use the app after faculty.
“It’s improved my research habits and time administration expertise,” mentioned Ahn, who used it to free himself of distractions whereas getting ready for a contemporary world historical past examination.
One scholar, senior Sydney Assil, was detached. “I’m not bothered a lot by Opal,” she mentioned. “I discover it somewhat bit pointless as a result of I don’t actually have a tough time following the cellphone coverage.”
Assil helps cellphone restrictions and felt the characterization of scholars ignoring each other in favor of scrolling on telephones was overblown. “I don’t assume we’re that degree of zombie,” she mentioned.
The ban hasn’t eradicated social media use, and a few college students use their laptops to entry Snapchat, Assil mentioned.
However junior Simren Bindra, a scholar council member who examined Opal final spring, mentioned she’s seen adjustments. College students can now not scroll as they stroll, she mentioned.
“It’s so much higher that we’re studying to handle distraction than having our cellphone fully stripped away,” she mentioned.
A scholar checks in together with her cellphone at Harvard-Westlake Faculty. The college requires college students to scan a QR code once they enter and test in to an app that blocks them from utilizing some social media and gaming websites.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Instances)
A testing floor for the app
Opal was initially constructed for working adults to enhance productiveness by turning off distractions, however is discovering a distinct segment amongst highschool and faculty college students, who make up a lot of the app’s new installs, mentioned Chief Government Kenneth Schlenker.
When Schlenker obtained an e mail in early 2025 from Ari Engelberg, Harvard-Westlake’s head of communications and strategic initiatives, inquiring whether or not the corporate had a product for educators, collaborating on a brand new utilization appeared like a pure subsequent step.
Harvard-Westlake requested scholar council members to attempt the Opal app within the spring. Suggestions was optimistic, so the corporate constructed Opal for Colleges, a paid model that additionally provides directors a dashboard to trace rule compliance.
“It’s rather more efficient for the varsity to have the ability to know if a scholar isn’t complying and is ready to interact in a dialog with them slightly than … a blanket ban,” Schlenker mentioned.
Church, the Harvard-Westlake dean, mentioned the varsity handed on Yondr pouches after studying teenagers might purchase instruments to bypass the locks. He mentioned he hoped the app would assist college students self-manage their cellphone use.
“Each software has a work-around, and youngsters are good, so we haven’t actually made Opal be the enforcer,” Church mentioned. The college might use the dashboard to establish rule-breakers sooner or later, however for now, academics and employees are merely confiscating telephones on sight, he mentioned.
Engelberg acknowledged some college students sneak glances at their telephones. “Our purpose is to not make it to zero,” he mentioned. “Our purpose is to carry it to a greater stability.”
Though college students have adjusted nicely to the principles, some initially feared the varsity might use Opal to see into their cellphone screens, mentioned junior Charlotte Im, one other scholar council member who examined Opal.
Opal doesn’t give colleges the power to view a scholar’s exercise inside apps, Schlenker mentioned. The dashboard, constructed to resemble an attendance sheet, reveals when college students go browsing and off Opal and whether or not they tampered with the varsity’s block settings.
The council held an meeting in September to deal with privateness issues. “[A]fter that, no person actually had any … unfavorable issues to say,” Im mentioned.
A Harvard-Westlake scholar scans a QR code. The college’s new cellphone restrictions require college students to scan a QR code to activate an app that blocks social media websites together with Instagram and Snapchat.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Instances)
Extra colleges search center floor
Schlenker mentioned that non-public colleges have been the primary to make use of the app, however that public colleges might additionally buy it. Opal’s primary app is free to obtain, however some options require a paid subscription. Faculty plans begin at $20 per scholar per 12 months, Schlenker mentioned in an e mail.
San Francisco’s the Bay Faculty had volunteers attempt the app within the fall and plans to pilot Opal for Colleges — the model with administrative controls — with a bigger group within the spring.
Benjamin Bingham, the Bay Faculty’s expertise director, mentioned the varsity remains to be mulling over choices. It tried going phone-free for every week however discovered that college students relied on the units for note-taking and scheduling, and a few mother and father had been uncomfortable with no direct line to their teenagers.
The college sought an choice that may permit college students to have telephones and scale back distractions, Bingham mentioned.
Bingham has additionally been in talks with firms Bloom and Unpluq, which make faucet playing cards and key chains blocking sure apps. Price has been a key consideration for the varsity of roughly 400 college students, which dominated out Yondr pouches.
Bingham declined to share particulars of Opal’s quote, however mentioned it was “considerably much less” than Yondr’s, which averaged about $35 per scholar. A Yondr spokesman mentioned in an e mail that its packages usually value $25 to $30 per scholar within the first 12 months and embody coaching and help. There is no such thing as a mounted annual charge and pouches should not offered individually.
Medawar, the Harvard-Westlake instructor, mentioned that the brand new app has made her job simpler and that she now not makes college students deposit telephones in a caddy initially of sophistication.
“I don’t need to be as a lot of a policeman,” she mentioned.
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