RPS Recap: The Cell Phone Ban
Happy New Year, Board Watchers! Life keeps mucking up my blogging plans, so I’m going to be firing off essays individually for a while until I can get caught up on what is now months worth of Board updates. (But I may need to start sacrificing livestock to the school closure Gods to give me just one day with all my kids in school for all 7 hours… TBD)
First up?
(Dun dun dun!)
The Cell Phone Ban
Richmond Public Schools is kicking off 2024 with a 6-school pilot program to ban student cell phones.
Dogwood Middle School
Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School
River City Middle School
Huguenot High School
John Marshall High School
Open High School
All 4,215 students can bring their phones to school - but once on campus, they will be locked in a “Yondr Pouch” until the end of the academic school day. Students will have access to their phones after school, but (per RPS policy) “cellular phone use must not interfere with any after school activity.” (SCORE)
It is a simple plan, really. In fact, the most remarkable part about it is that it’s happening at all, because:
“We have been talking about this for a very long time.” 9th District’s Nicole Jones, Nov 8, 2021
That was 800 days ago, when 3rd District’s Kenya Gibson called student cell phone use a “pretty big deal” and made a motion to create a Digital Work Group that would “review digital use by students during the school day -- including but not limited to personal cell phones…” (Meeting Minutes)
The Board already had a pretty good idea what that work group would find:
Phones are an academic distraction; “Most kids are engaged on their phones vs their teachers.” (White)
Phones cause about 80% of building issues. (Young)
Phones are contributing to a cycle of student fights and retaliation. (White)
Phones are exposing students to violent content. (Gibson)
And, outnumbered teachers have no way to enforce the current RPS phone policy (“turned off and stored out of sight.” SCORE, Pg 22.)
“That’s hard to manage, being realistic… We’re adding onto the list of things for teachers to do.” Chairwoman Cheryl Burke
All of this was affirmed by the Digital Work Group’s research, which found “cell phone usage was a major distraction, particularly in secondary settings.” And - while they couldn’t prove it directly (cell phones are student’s private property) - they had powerful data to suggest these devices were having a profoundly negative effect on student safety:
The Digital Work Group analyzed student’s use of school-issued chromebooks, and found that they had used social programs like “messaging and [Google] Hangouts” to make more than 3,500 threats of “violence towards others” in the first 32 days of school alone.
Ashley Bland, Chair of this 12-month-long advisory committee, didn’t have a chance to present any of these findings (or even made it to the podium) before Gibson said “enough is enough,” motioned to “restrict secondary students from using personal cell phone devices during the school day,” and tasked the administration with finding strategies to do this this. (Her full motion specifies research into the cost and implementation of Hopewell Public Schools’ Yondr pouch strategy.)
Young was a quick second. He’d floated a similar motion 3 months earlier that his colleagues had basically ignored.
Now, the Board passed Gibson’s motion, 7:1 (Nay: Jones).
The administration, duty-bound, found a variety of products that schools could use to restrict phone access during the school day. They also researched a variety of other Virginia school divisions, and found that the use of these restrictive devices was unusual… and costly, too.
The Superintendent recommended the Board maintain and enforce the existing off-and-out-of-sight policy, and consider using restrictive devices (like Yondr pouches) for those students who continually violate that phone policy. (This was supported by his student advisory committee, as well, who could not otherwise “comprehend being without access to their phones at school.”)
The Board - yet again - became paralyzed by indecision. Gibson suggested they set money aside in the upcoming budget (for SY 2023-24) and figure out the details later.
They didn’t.
The cell phone ban faded into the background for another 5 months, until a gunman took the life of a Huguenot graduate in June.
That unfortunate incident qualified Richmond Public Schools for a “Project SERV Grant” - short term funds that the USDOE provides to school divisions that are recovering from acts of violence.
New Security Director John Beazley decided to use $45,000 worth of this grant to revive the Board’s unfinished (abandoned) restrictive-cell-phone policy. He proposed a Yondr pouch pilot for approximately 3,000 students at 4 schools.
There was a minute or two when the Wellness Office thought they’d have to shrink the pilot when that funding didn’t come through - but Kamras promised to find another funding source AND increase the pilot size, prompting Young to declare “bless you, Jason Kamras!” like he was in a Dickens novel.
Ultimately, the division identified 6 pilot schools, and settled on the Yondr Pouch strategy. (…even after the product representative was met with a brick wall of Board cynicism and skepticism in November.)
The student advisory committee was split. Two student representatives addressed the Board in November 2023 and January 2024, sharing the following pros:
This is a “simple solution” to help students “remain focused, increase productivity” and improve the academic performance of students. This is a logical response to “device usage addiction” that surged in teens and young adults during the COVID years, and wrecked havoc on mental health.
…and cons:
Students (and families) want to be able to access their phones in the event of emergencies. Besides, cell phone use is a symptom of student’s 7-hour workday (and lack of breaks) - which leaves them seeking out distraction for relief.
“The difference between my generation and yours is that - while you found yourself doodling on school work to provide a distraction, we’ve been given computers… To be direct: without our cell phones, we will be pretty bored.”
They also discussed the need to customize this ban to reflect each school’s culture.
Mr. Beazley, responsive to this feedback, assured the Board that implementation will vary by school. For instance:
Some schools will send pouches home with kids at the end of the day; some schools will keep pouches on-site.
Some will offer kids breaks (for instance, during lunch); some schools may not.
(It is the school principal’s responsibility to communicate these details with parents, staff, and students.)
The pilot is already underway at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School, where the parents and students “were all on board” and ready to start ahead of schedule. The impact has been immediate:
“One of my teachers have already sent me data on a student academic engagement… And because, we just started Monday — he’s seeing a growth in participation in his classroom, of student participation in academics.” Inette Dabney, MLK Principal
…plus or minus a few vandalized Yondr pouches.
Remaining pilot schools “are set to go the week of [January] the 22.”
If you have questions or concerns about the cell phone ban, or any other security measures, I strongly encourage you to join the Security Director’s public zoom calls every Friday at noon. (See: “Lunchtime Chat”) Mr Beazley is incredibly helpful and I always find these chats to be friendly and informative.
That’s all for now - but I am BEYOND thrilled to announce the return of city government content on the blog! Check in with Jessee for the latest on the Citizen Review Board, and a practical guide to running for local office in Richmond.