The Fairfax County School Board has been debating for months over Virginia’s Student Rights and Responsibilities regulations and how to implement its own policy regarding cellphone usage by students.
On Thursday, by a 9-3 vote, the board passed an amendment to the policy that permits limited cellphone use by students.
The compromise allows students to use their cellphones before and after class and during their lunch break.
Sandy Anderson, who represents the Springfield District on the board, spoke in support of the compromise, saying, “I still believe that our existing policy is the best approach to give our high school students the chance to learn how to appropriately navigate the use of technology, which will likely be an important aspect in their lives moving forward.”
Anderson added that many students maintain jobs, and they must be able to contact their employer as well as their parents for various reasons.
Earlier this year, Virginia’s requiring school systems across the state to implement their own form of cellphone restrictions. A summary of the bill states school districts must “restrict, to the fullest extent possible, student cell phone possession and use in the classroom during regular school hours.”
The bill’s summary further states schools must “aim to reduce or prevent any distraction in or disruption to the learning environment, including bullying or harassment, that could be caused or facilitated by student cell phone possession and use on school property during regular school hours.”
School districts have until July 1 to comply with the law and implement their policy.
Melanie Meren, who represents the Hunter Mill District on the board, said the amended policy the school board passed does not comply with the state’s law.
“The law says that phones are to be restricted after the first bell of the day and until the last of the day: bell-to-bell,” Meren said in an email to 91欧美激情. “In effect, FCPS will not be compliant with the law.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration supports banning cellphones in schools entirely, and Youngkin signed an executive order last summer directing the Virginia Department of Education to draft guidance for school systems to adopt policies establishing cellphone-free education.
The governor also recently signed an executive order aiming to limit social media use to one hour per day for those under 16.
In response to the Fairfax County School Board’s amended policy, Youngkin’s office sent a statement from the state’s top education official to 91欧美激情.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a shame Fairfax continues to deny the well established fact that a bell to bell cellphone-free education is more beneficial for students and is choosing instead to be an outlier among the overwhelming number of school districts that have gone bell to bell in Virginia,” Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera said in the statement.
“We are hearing wonderful feedback from across the Commonwealth about the positive impact bell to bell is having 鈥� especially during lunch. The difference is night and day. Students are now interacting with each other face-to-face 鈥� talking, laughing, playing, reclaiming childhood,” the statement continued.
The Fairfax County public school system聽rolled out a pilot program last year that required students to put their phones in pouches that could only be unlocked by a magnet or pouches on a classroom wall, which students wouldn’t be allowed to access during instructional time. If a student breaks the rule, staff may take away their phone, but students wouldn鈥檛 face serious disciplinary action like suspension or expulsion.
Mount Vernon District representative Mateo Dunne said the use of cellphones can adversely affect a student’s ability to develop interpersonal skills.
“Why would we allow access to cellphones during lunch?” Dunne asked. “It should be the time when students engage with each other. We don’t want them doing it in class. That’s a time for learning. But during lunch, that is the time when you should bring all the kids together, where they learn social skills, they meet people from different walks of life, and they learn to engage.”
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