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MEXICO CITY — Mexico City lawmakers have approved new rules to regulate cell phone use in schools, in what officials are calling a “historic step” toward ensuring students spend at least 5% of class time looking vaguely in the direction of the chalkboard.
The reform, passed unanimously by the capital’s Congress, requires primary and secondary schools to draft policies limiting cell phone use during school hours, while allowing exceptions for emergencies and “educational purposes,” a category students immediately interpreted as “pretty much anything.”
Under the new guidelines, schools are encouraged to introduce short, structured “phone pause moments,” during which students will place their devices face down on the desk, maintain eye contact at all times, and attempt to remember their teacher’s last name. Some campuses are testing secure phone lockers designed to hold devices, reduce distractions, and provide a safe space for notifications to pile up unsupervised.
Teachers cautiously welcomed the change. “If even three students notice that I am in the classroom, that will be progress,” said one middle school teacher in Álvaro Obregón, adding that she dreams of a future where at least one pupil asks a question that was not generated by an AI homework app.
Parents, meanwhile, expressed mixed feelings, torn between supporting reduced screen time and fearing they will no longer be able to send urgent mid-morning messages on WhatsApp, such as “did you see what I packed you for lunch” and “answer me, I see you’re online.” Authorities stressed that traditional communication tools, like school landlines and crumpled notices at the bottom of backpacks, still remain fully operational.
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