For the 2024-2025 school year Governor, Glenn Youngkin endowed an executive order to schools for a cell phone-free environment. Technically, this order doesn’t come to life until 2025, however, Fauquier County Public Schools had decided to start the school year already implementing Youngkin’s order. 

Elementary, middle, and high school students are expected to follow these guidelines as each level of school has their own separate rules regarding the new cell phone policies. Elementary students are expected to keep their devices in their backpacks from when they step into the building until they exit. Middle school students should keep their devices off and in their backpacks for the complete school day. Cell phones will not be used during breaks, transitions, or instructional time while school is in session. High school students can use their devices before and after school as well as during transitions and breaks. Devices shall not be used during your class time and should be placed wherever your teacher advises you to put them. 

Many students are upset because of this new policy. Students don’t only use their cell phones for entertainment, they also use their cell phones for convenience. Why pull out your large Chromebooks for 2 minutes to use the Desmos calculator when you could just use your phone? Many people charge their phones every night, unlike their Chromebooks. This will help cause less distraction and interruption compared to an uncharged Chromebook. Let alone all of the Chromebook chargers slithering around the floor like a snake. Another thing some younger students are upset about, especially middle school students, is not being able to use their phones during breaks. How are phones affecting someone’s learning if they aren’t in class to learn anything? Many students understand to not use their phones while the teacher is teaching, however, not being able to pull your phone out of your backpack to check the time is crazy. 

With technology evolving every year, there are so many easy ways for students to still communicate with people, play games, and so much more on the computer, which is almost equivalent to a cell phone. There is a saying that states “Strict parents make sneaky children.” Well, this could apply at school too. “Strict schools make sneaky students.” One thing young kids like to do is provoke. For many kids, if you tell them not to do something they are going to do it anyway. Even if they don’t usually act like that, students still need room to breathe during the day. School is roughly 8 hours long, so letting students on their phones for a few minutes every once in a while isn’t so bad. Not allowing students to have a break will just cause them to sneak their phones anyway. If students fail to meet the requirements in class because of their phones, then yes, by all means, limit their access to their phones, but if they are consistently not listening and learning that is their responsibility, not the teachers’ fault or any other student who was listening to the lesson. 

Restricting access to cell phones could also be a good thing. It causes more students to actively participate, listen, and learn. Many adults believe it will help show higher academic rates as well as an improvement in test scores. The main thing adults see as possible is a reduction in distraction. Phones distract students all of the time, both inside and outside of the classroom. This causes many students not to understand what is going on in class; which, in turn, leads to poor execution of assignments and tests. 

Another good thing about restricting cell phone use is the ability to decrease the amount of cyberbullying. Restricting cell phones won’t get rid of cyberbullying but it will help decrease the amount of cyberbullying that happens in the world. Roughly 75% of students have visited a website that has posted mean things about a classmate. Many students also have their passwords changed or taken by other students to purposefully log them out of their accounts. This can be very dangerous and impersonation is a class 1 misdemeanor. Not letting students on their phones during school could limit the number of times cyberbullying occurs tremendously.

With some people wanting a restriction on cell phones and others not wanting a restriction, all anyone can do is sit and cooperate. Students will not get any benefits by breaking this code of conduct. The only thing they will get is further loss of their cell phone depending on how many times they have broken the rule. So students and teachers please cooperate! This ban may not be in the teachers’ morals, so if you disagree with the policy, consider writing to our governor, Glenn Youngkin.