A stricter cellphone coverage is on its technique to Prince William County faculties beginning subsequent faculty yr. The varsity board accepted a bell to bell ban at its assembly Wednesday evening.
A number of districts throughout Virginia have been adopting these insurance policies due to an govt order issued by the governor earlier this yr.
“I really imagine cellphones are a barrier to at least one’s potential,” mentioned Babur Lateef, chairman of the Prince William County College Board.
The brand new coverage requires college students in all grade ranges to have their cellphones turned off and put away from bell to bell in an effort to chop down on distractions through the faculty day and enhance studying.
“I feel over time the analysis has proven that this dependence on the telephones, the tethering to this know-how is disruptive to studying and to sustaining a powerful set of fundamental foundational information for the work that should get performed,” Lateef mentioned.
Many districts within the space, together with Prince William County, really carried out stricter cellphone insurance policies earlier than the governor’s order.
Nonetheless, this new ban isn’t sitting effectively with some college students.
“I have never heard one individual that’s actually supportive of it being taken from all of them day,” mentioned Kathryn Haddock, a scholar at Woodbridge Senior Excessive College.
A handful of scholars spoke out on the assembly and expressed their considerations about banning the units.
“We imagine that telephones is usually a actually vital device to make use of in reporting unsafe conditions for college students,” mentioned Ava Schelling, a scholar at Woodbridge Senior Excessive College.
They’re hoping there’s a probability to have the coverage altered sooner or later.
“We need to have a voice in our faculty as a result of the whole lot that the college board is deciding and the governor is deciding about training entails us,” Schelling mentioned.
