This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
This article was written by WTOP’s news partner, InsideNoVa.com, and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
As school divisions across Virginia debut more stringent cell phone policies aimed at limiting student distractions in class, Prince William County Public Schools officials are hinting local policy changes could be on the way.
Schools and teachers in the county can set their own cell phone policies. But with educators and students saying the problems posed by the devices have only become worse since the COVID-19 pandemic, Superintendent LaTanya McDade says her central office is considering new division-wide policies for the first time.
“We have some schools that have independently implemented cell phone policies. As a school division collectively, we haven’t put forth any new changes on cell phones, but it is something that we are exploring,” McDade told InsideNoVa as the new school year got underway Monday.
Some school systems around Virginia are beginning to adopt more radical approaches. Most notably, Charlottesville City Public Schools has implemented a blanket ban on student cell phone use during the day, requiring phones to be placed in magnetic pouches for the duration of school hours.
“We know that our students are hooked on their phones. They can’t put them down,” Charlottesville Superintendent Royal Gurley told parents, according to the Daily Progress. “Our educators say cell phones are just a disruption to teaching and learning.”
But the new policy there has garnered backlash from parents who say they need to be able to reach their students in case of emergency.
At Osbourn Park High School outside Manassas, senior Katie Scharlat agreed a blanket ban could post a problem in the event of an emergency. “Personally, I don’t have an issue with not using my cell phone in school,” she told InsideNoVa. “But it’s a way for students to communicate with their families.”
That concern isn’t stopping some teachers at Osbourn Park. For the first time this year, Principal Lisamarie Kane said, teachers will be given boxes in which, if they so choose, they can lock up phones for students who are “repeat offenders” of using their phones in class.
“Our teachers have the option of letting their students use cell phones for instruction or not. If they’re not used for instruction or we don’t want them, we just have the kids put them in their backpacks,” Kane told InsideNoVa. “And we have different measures in place for students that can’t do that, because we’re all addicted to our phones a little bit.”
Even outside the classroom, some educators are increasingly concerned about the effect phones are having on how students socialize and how online conflicts can find their way into the school building. That’s led some schools, like Benton Middle School outside Manassas, to ban all phone usage without express permission from a teacher for the entirety of the school day, though they don’t confiscate all phones like in Charlottesville.
According to School Board Chair Babur Lateef, cell phones are an issue that some on the board want to be more proactive about.
“There’s a number of us on the board that think that [a division-wide policy] is a good idea. … We don’t have any formal policy that we plan on voting on, but I know a number of School Board members have brought it up with the superintendent as far as, ‘It does concern us,’” Lateef said. “If our goals are to engage a student in classroom work and … increase learning, we have to get them off these devices where they’re not necessarily doing things that will help them academically.”
