ROANOKE COUNTY, Va. – High school students in Roanoke County Schools can expect a few changes going back to school on Thursday when it comes to cell phones.
On Tuesday, the Roanoke County School Board approved some changes to their current cell phone policy to restrict teachers from allowing cell phones in the classroom at all grade levels. Under the new policy, high school students will be able to use their personal devices in between classes and during lunch.
The school board has discussed revising the current (now former) cell phone policy which permitted teachers to allow cell phones in the classroom for instruction.
The board for the past month has considered three scenarios:
- Keep the policy the way it is
- Cell phones are prohibited in the classrooms and teachers can not allow students to use them, even if it’s for educational purposes.
- Restrict cell phones throughout the entire day for all grade levels.
The school division even sent out a survey to parents, staff and students to get their take on what policy they’d like to see.
According to the survey, 36% of parents want to keep the current policy, 33% want to ban phones during class time and 29% want to ban phones all day.
Students also chimed in with 81% not wanting to change the policy.
The new policy passed in a 3-1 vote.
Roanoke County School Board Chairman, Brent Hudson was the only board member to vote against it. However, Hudson said his decision is based on what he saw with the survey from people he represents.
“I look at the numbers of the folks that I serve in Northside and Glenvar, option one was way ahead of option two in both. I can’t support option two, I’m going to support option one,” Hudson said.
Several members were also in favor of going more restrictive but felt meeting the parents in the middle with option two would be best with the school year right around the corner.
This also eliminates a gray area for teachers.
“The policy before really kind of put a lot of pressure on the teachers to make that call. I think this decision this evening really is a sign of support from our school board to the teachers to say ‘hey we’re going to take the heat on this’ so to speak...in terms of how the policy should be implemented,” Superintendent Ken Nicely said.