RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -Richmond Public Schools now has a plan to enforce its new cell phone policy in the new year.
The division will take a tiered approach, starting with a verbal warning and then escalating.
The “Acceptable Technology and Cell Phone Use Policy” was shared at the Richmond School Board meeting on Monday, Dec. 2.
The presentation shows that the first time a student is caught using a phone, school staff will give a verbal warning and document the incident.
The second time, there will be a written note or a phone call home and the potential for temporary confiscation of the device that may require caregiver pick up.
The third time could result in suspension, either in school or out of it, depending on the severity and frequency of violations. This may also include temporary confiscation of the device.
For elementary age students, they may participate in individual or small group sessions with the school counselor.
Severe violations like using a phone for cheating, cyberbullying or any illegal activity could lead to immediate confiscation, suspension, law enforcement involvement, and/or legal action.
“It doesn’t look that much different from any other discipline policy, whether you’re not turning in your work, whether you haven’t shown up at school,” RPS parent Lauren Methena said.
Each school will establish its policy for when exactly to confiscate. Possible confiscation scenarios could involve visible use, disruptive use, safety concerns or refusal to comply.
The policy says, ”RPS student privacy will be respected during device handling and inspection. Access to personal data will be limited to authorized personnel (School Leaders, Law enforcement, and in some cases Care & Safety staff) and only for legitimate purposes.”
If a phone has to be confiscated, an RPS staff member will call an administrator to collect the device, which will then be put in a special container in a classroom or office.
A confiscation form will be filled out with any necessary details, and parents and guardians will be notified of the reasoning and how to retrieve the phone.
There is also a tiered approach for when phones are confiscated. The first time it happens, the device will be returned to the student at the end of the school day. The next time, it will be given to a parent/guardian. The third time, it may be held longer or even until a meeting with a guardian.
“It looks like a common sense approach to getting kids to understand that these are your expectations. We need you to pay attention in class. If the cell phone is the thing that is keeping you from paying attention in class, then it needs to be put away. It’s as simple as that,” Methena said.
Methena has four kids, one of whom goes to Dogwood Middle School, which was a pilot for the policy this past year. She is also president of the PTA there and has seen firsthand the impact of phone-free schools.
“Kids are using the phones to coordinate where they’re going to fight later. Fights in the hallways went down after the cell phones were taken away because the kids couldn’t communicate and bully each other over the phones anymore,” Methena said.
She says she has heard grades and overall behavior have improved, too.
“Often you have kids who may or may not want to be there in the first place, and then you add to the fact that they are just totally taken up in their cell phones. That is another barrier, another point of friction, between the teacher and the student,” she said. “They’re not feeling that constant stress and irritability of going back and forth between the classroom and phone. I think that’s why we saw some of the behavior problems start to diminish as well.”
Some parents have been worried about handling emergencies when students do not have phones to contact them.
Methena says she experienced that this past year when her daughter had an allergic reaction at school.
“We weren’t sure exactly what it was, and long story short, the nurse called me from the school. I went down there, I ended up having to take her to the ER,” she said. “She was fine, but the point is that we were able to accomplish everything, keep her safe without any cell phones.”
The policy states that contacting the school’s office is the preferred way for parents and students to communicate.
Some school board members expressed concerns that the process would be too much for the limited number of office assistants in the city. Others were worried that the policies would not be consistent at each school.
“The few times that my daughter has had to call for different reasons, she’s used the school phones, and it’s been fine,” Methena said. “They do have more than one phone in most of the offices.”
The school division also plans a set of alternative consequences. It will consider restorative practices, such as requiring students to research and present the negative impacts of excessive technology use on adolescents. It may also offer educational workshops.
The new policy goes into effect on Jan. 1. Over the next few weeks, school-based community conversations will be held to resolve any specific concerns or issues on each campus.
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