Virginia Beach high schools are banned from using their phones during lunch after this week’s school board vote.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — High school students in Virginia Beach will no longer be able to use their phones during lunch following Tuesday’s school board vote.
Board members voted on changes to Policy 5-52.1, which dictates cell phone usage for students. During the last school year, high school students were allowed to use their phones during their lunch period.
The new policy removes that privilege, bringing the district more closely aligned with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s “bell to bell” cell phone ban for all Virginia schools.
Now, phones are prohibited from the first bell at the start of the school day until the dismissal bell at the end of the day. This includes lunch times, bathroom breaks, and time between classes.
Data presented to school board members during Tuesday’s meeting showed more than 6,600 violations during the 2024-25 school year. The most violations occurred during the third quarter of the year, with 2,278 violations.
A vast majority of the violations — 5,500 — took place in the classroom, the data showed.
The school board also voted to tweak the language on student discipline related to cell phone usage. The policy no longer specifies the range of disciplinary actions, which previously stated that discipline ranged from a warning to out-of-school suspension.
Now, students will be subjected to the discipline outlined in the Code of Student Conduct.
