RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT)—Every Virginia school division aims to achieve cell-phone-free learning by 2025.
“They’re there to study, they’re there to pay attention to their teachers and behave in class, and I think that having cellphones works totally against that,” said Jeffery Cartwright, a grandparent of two Richmond Public Schools (RPS) students.
He believes banning phones in the classroom will be beneficial.
“I don’t think cellphones and electronic stuff is necessarily bad itself,” he said. “It just has to be controlled. There are places and times, and I think the school day and in the school is neither the place nor the time.”
On Wednesday night, more than 150 people attended a virtual RPS town hall to discuss the new policy, which will require all students to turn off and put away their phones from bell to bell and ban phone use in the classrooms, hallways, cafeterias and bathrooms.
However, not everyone is in favor of these guidelines. Some are worried about how to contact their child in an emergency. School officials ensured guardians that there are mass communication methods at each school in the division.
“They will have processes and procedures in place to make sure that you will be able to have access to your students,” said Shonda Harris Muhammed with RPS.
Select schools require students to put their phones in magnetically sealed pouches.
In July, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order requiring all school divisions to adopt stricter phone policies to limit distractions in the classroom and increase student engagement.
“Change is difficult, change takes time, and we’re going to continue to work with you on a positive level,” Harris-Muhammed said.
Cartwright believes these new guidelines may be helpful for teachers as well.
“One less distraction, and a big distraction that teachers don’t need. They have a hard enough job,” he said.
All RPS schools will start enforcing this policy in the new year.
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