(Danville) — Students who bring their cell phones to school in Danville will have to keep them bagged up.
The School Board Thursday got an update to the cell phone policy they implemented last year. It still allows middle and high school students to bring their phones. But they’ll have to be placed in a special bag developed by a company called “Yondr.”
“As the students arrive in the morning, they will place their cell phones in one of these pouches,” said Assistant Superintendent Wayne Lyle. “Once it’s locked you will see a green button emerge at the top showing that it is locked. Once it’s locked in the Yondr pouch, it’s locked for the entire day.”
Lyle told the School Board they’re also buying a number of units that will unlock the pouches at the end of the school day. He says the goal is for students to NOT bring their phones, since they won’t have access to them anyway. But the Yondr pouches will keep phones out of sight. “We want to make sure the students are complying with the cell phone policy and this is just another way of making sure that students are not using their cell phones during the day,” Lyle said.
The new policy will go into effect on the first day of school—which is just a few weeks away. “We need to make sure we communicate this to students, parents and staff because we all need to be on the same page,” Lyle said. “We’ll also post this information on our school website and social media sites.”
In addition to students, Lyle says the new cell phone policy also changes cell phone protocols for school staff. “As professionals and adults, we have to model the expectations. If students are not allowed to use their cell phones during the school day, then we as adults need to model those expectations. So we should not be walking around the hallways while texting or talking on our cell phones.”
The rest of the Danville School System’s cell phone policy remains the same. A first offense means students can get their phones back at the end of the day. A second offense leads to in-school suspension. A third offense means a permanent loss of phone privileges.
The Yondr phone pouches are already used in Hopewell, Petersburg, and Richmond schools.
Last week, Governor Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33, which directs the state Department of Education to draft guidance for school divisions to adopt policies and procedures establishing a “cell phone-free education.” The state will work with parents, students, teachers, local school leaders and others to draw up policies to establish age-appropriate restriction or elimination of cell phone use during instructional time. They’ll also develop protocols allowing parents to contact their children in emergencies.
The state Department of Education is expected to update their guidance on school cell phone policies next month.