The Pittsylvania County school board has proposed a new school phone policy that will take effect in January of 2025.
Cell phone rules already exist at schools, but this new policy will require students to keep their phone out of reach during the school day. If a student is seen with a personal electronic device it will be confiscated and the student will face severe disciplinary consequences.
On the PCS website the policy is documented as follows:
“During the instructional day, student cell phones and other personal electronic devices must be turned off and stored away from the student. These devices include, but are not limited to, wearable devices such as smart watches, personal headphones, personal laptops, and other future personal electronic devices capable of connecting to a smartphone, the internet, a cellular or WiFi connection, or directly to a similar device. Unauthorized possession and/or use of a call phone or other personal electronic devices as defined above will result in disciplinary actions including confiscation up to revocation. In all cases, the cell phone or device will be confiscated. Pittsylvania County Schools is not responsible for any student cell phone or personal electronic device.”
Phones will be stored in students lockers from bell to bell, or not brought into school at all. Many people on the school board believe that it is not enough to just store it in a backpack.
Many students have and will react negatively to this change. Currently, phones are still accessible during the school day despite the fact that students are not allowed to have access to them.
At the recent PCS school board meeting the superintendent Mark Jones expressed his support for the revised cell phone policy. He believes it will be a positive change that is beneficial for students.
“Probably the first month, if we put them in lockers, it’s going to be difficult, because you’re going to have kids that are going to try to keep them with them, but if we’re doing what’s best for the kids… then we’ve got to break that tie, and to break that tie is going to be tough, and we’re going to get a lot of complains about this,” Mark Jones, superintendent, said.
There is also the concern that too many kids will face suspension and their education will be affected. Attendance rates will go down at schools, and their SOL test scores could be affected as well.
“I think they have good intentions, but I think policies like this will only slow down classrooms more and turn the focus to policing students instead of educating them,” Katie Turner, junior, said.
“This won’t be a big difference from the current school policy, but I think the punishment for having a phone at school is too harsh,” Autumn France, freshman, said.
Regulating cell phone usage during the school day is a good idea because high school students have a very low attention span and are easily distracted, so having no access to phones may increase academic success among students.
