Montgomery County speaks on newest policy prohibiting cell phone use during school hours
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) — Cell phone usage has been a hot topic across the Commonwealth, especially since earlier this month Governor Glenn Youngkin signed Executive Order 33, which aims to create cell phone-free education in K-12 schools.
Since then schools in Virginia have begun to create their own cell phone policies, with Montgomery County Public Schools being the latest one.
Their policy prohibits students from using phones, smartwatches, and earbuds unless given special permission from their principal- or for medical exemptions.
“Our kids are already driven to distraction with all the things that are competing for their interest, if there was a way for us to help them and reduce that during the school days so they could focus solely on the academics- we thought it would be beneficial,” said Dr. Bernard Bragan, the Superintendent of Montgomery County.
Katie Seidemann, a choir teacher at Montgomery County Public Schools and the president of the Montgomery County Education Association, said even in her physically demanding class, students still would be distracted by their phones.
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“Even without desks, the cell phones are an issue,” said Seidemann, “Sometimes the students don’t even realize that they have them, or that they’re consistently looking at them. They’re just so used to being able to pull them out and look at them.”
MCPS was able to try their policy at Christiansburg Middle School this past year and reported nothing but success.
“The lunch room got noisy again, because instead of children eating their food and then getting right on their phones, they started interacting with each other,” said Dr. Bragan, “That’s what we want to do, we want to provide children with the opportunity to interact with one another- and not just academically with their teachers in the classroom.
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Both Dr. Bragan and Seidemann say- the only way to get positive results from the new policy is through community and communication.
“It’s gonna take a real community effort between the students, the staff, the administration, and the families, just to really come together and support this policy as the best way to tamp down on the distractions in class,” said Seidemann.
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