Smart phones ushered in a technological revolution when they were introduced, enabling users to summon the scope of human knowledge from the palm of their hands. Yet, for all their benefits, mobile devices are also incredibly distracting and disruptive in a classroom.
Teachers too often find themselves competing with cellphones for students’ attention. By removing them from the classroom, as Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently directed, Virginia would help focus attention away from devices and back on instruction, where it belongs.
Whether mobile phones should be allowed in public schools has been a topic of considerable debate for years, stretching back to the pre-iPhone era of Blackberrys and flip-phones. While mobile devices were once a tool reserved for emergencies, students now use them to message each other, play games, watch videos and scroll social media throughout the school day, taking time away from the education they should be receiving.
According to 2023 polling by the Pew Research Center, some 95% of children ages 13-17 have a cellphone, reflecting the ubiquitous presence of these devices. In contrast to the views of many adults, June polling by Pew found that 70% of students in that age group say the benefits of their phones outweigh their harms.
While kids love them, teachers loathe them. That same June polling found 72% of high school teachers, and 33% of all teachers (elementary, middle and high school), believe mobile phones are a “major problem” in their schools. And while 82% of K-12 teachers say their schools have a phone policy of some sort, 30% of those teachers reported those policies were difficult or impossible to enforce.
That’s a challenge for officials looking to eliminate cellphones from the classroom. But there’s another stakeholder group on the other side of the fence as well: parents.
According to polling this year by the National Parents Union, a nonprofit formed in 2020 before the pandemic, 56% of parents “believe students should sometimes be allowed to use their cell phones in school, during times like lunch or recess, at athletic events and in class for academic purposes approved by their teacher.”
While they generally agree there should be limits on mobile phone usage during the school day, 57% said they want those policies developed on the district level or on a school-by-school basis.
A leading reason that parents want their kids to have access to mobile devices is as straightforward as it is heartbreaking: They are worried their children won’t have access to their phones during an emergency, such as a shooting.
While remaining sensitive to that concern, schools and districts throughout Virginia have implemented a variety of policies to limit or ban mobile phone use in schools. Chesapeake, for instance, recently completed its first year of a districtwide ban on the devices during the school day, with an exception for high school students during lunch. Officials proclaimed it a success.
Earlier this year, the General Assembly considered legislation that would explicitly authorize school boards to enact district-level limits on handheld devices. It passed the Senate but died in the House amid arguments that the bill was redundant and that boards already had that power.
That prompted the governor to try a different approach this month. He signed an executive order directing the Department of Education to work with other stakeholders to develop model policies for school districts to ban cellphones from the classroom. Officials will hold listening sessions and solicit input as part of that effort, and complete a policy by September that school boards can adopt effective Jan. 1.
The first in-person Hampton Roads-area event is Monday, from 4:30-6 p.m., at Tallwood High School at 1668 Kempsville Rd. in Virginia Beach. Register to attend or offer your thoughts online at the department’s website, doe.virginia.gov.
The determination to remove mobile phones from schools is laudable; the specifics of that policy and the buy-in it receives will determine its effectiveness. The public should get involved so that what follows meets the needs of students, teachers and parents alike.
