By Rachel Sawyer

Guest columnist

Can you imagine not being on your phone for seven hours straight? 

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of personal electronic devices during high school instructional time has increased drastically. Electronic devices have caused disruptions to learning and lapses in students’ education. To help remedy this, Virginia Gov, Glenn Youngkin issued a statewide phone ban for K-12 students. This ban establishes a “bell-to-bell” rule, meaning that students are expected to turn off their phones from the start of the first bell to the last bell of the day. While each school district can not adjust the baseline of these rules, they can make them stricter at their discretion. One example is Virginia’s Accomack County, which has taken this new phone ban too far.

Virginia Beach Public School district exemplifies the most common form of this phone ban, as student phone use is forbidden during class. However, students can use their phones on the bus and during lunch. If students need to contact someone during class, they must do it through their high school’s main office phone. If these rules are violated, the first punishment is a warning, and the second is Out-of-School Suspension (OSS).

Accomack County shares several policies with Virginia Beach, such as allowing the use of the main office phone and personal devices on the bus. High school students in Accomack County are prohibited from using their phones throughout the day, including during lunch. If a high school student is caught using their phone during the school day, their first punishment is one day of OSS instead of a non-disciplinary warning. On the second offense, they will receive three days of OSS and five or more for third and subsequent violations.

These new disciplinary actions in Accomack County were created to help students understand phone usage expectations. However, these actions miss their mark and do not allow for unintentional mistakes. High school students’ brains are still developing, so they will make frequent mishaps. After all, we live in a digital age, and our lives revolve around electronics. Most adults, including myself, would unintentionally use their phones while adjusting to a new phone ban. Receiving OSS upon first offense, even if the phone use is accidental, is exceptionally severe. 

When a student receives OSS, it is placed on their permanent record. If the student is interested in pursuing college, the existence of OSS on their record could make admissions more difficult. Even if the student accidentally used their phone once, they will be labeled as a behavioral problem on their transcript. This could ruin a good student’s chances of getting into their preferred college simply because they accidentally used their phone once out of habit. 

This punishment over phone usage is unjustified when schools have more pressing disciplinary issues. For instance, bullying is often not handled well in academic settings. Even in Accomack County, regarding bullying, they will call those involved into a conference before determining what punishment should be used. There is no reason for the administration not to do the same for this phone ban.

The use of OSS as the first punishment is why Accomack County must rework its phone ban for high schoolers. One way to revise the phone ban is to have the administration meet with the student individually upon their first offense and give them a warning. A warning lessens the consequences of accidental mishaps. However, if the student continues using their phone during instructional time, the following punishment should be OSS. Overall, if changes are not made to Accomack County’s phone ban, it could cause problems for their students’ futures by damaging their college admissions chances.

 

Rachel V. Sawyer is a psychology major and linguistics minor at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. At W&M, she is involved with the Stress & Emotion Psychology Lab, Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity, Nu Kappa Epsilon, Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds. She has lived in Carrollton her whole life and graduated from Smithfield High School and The Governor’s School for the Arts in 2022. She currently works in Smithfield as a certified nurse’s aide for Riverside Healthcare System and as a music librarian for the W&M Wind Ensemble. Her email address is rvsawyer243@gmail.com.