Robertson, executive director of high school leadership for Stafford public schools, said she immediately thought the students were sharing a video on one of their cellphones, so she glanced inside the circle as she walked past.
“This group of students was simply standing in the hall, briefly, and having a conversation,” she said, acknowledging that she felt “a little foolish and judgmental” about her mistake.
But Robertson also said she felt deeply gratified over the otherwise unremarkable hallway conversation because it reflected a policy the public school system had been developing since the end of the previous school year to require high school students to put away their cellphones from the moment the first bell rings that morning until the last bell in the afternoon.
“I truly believe we made the right decision,” she said.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin thinks so, too, and so does the General Assembly, which passed legislation this year to put into Virginia law the policy that the governor put in place by executive order last summer.
In his July 2024 executive order Youngkin said widespread use of cellphones and social media is contributing to an “alarming mental health crisis” among adolescents and detracting from learning. Youngkin’s education department called for cellphone restrictions from “bell to bell” and called on localities to implement their own policies by Jan. 1.
School systems in the city of Richmond and Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties restrict students’ cellphone use during the school day.
Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-7th, wants to take that policy nationwide through the UNPLUGGED Act, which he introduced last week to ban cellphones from school classrooms. His measure would include the same exceptions as the legislation that Youngkin signed on April 2 for students with disabilities or other needs, such as lack of English language proficiency, that could require technical aids.
Vindman, whose district is based in Prince William, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, has a daughter in Prince William County public schools and a son who graduated from the system. Vindman convened a roundtable discussion late last month that included educators and other leaders from his district, including Robertson.
“I know how hard it can be to unplug, but the results I’ve heard from local Virginia leaders and students speak for themselves,” Vindman said. “Across the Seventh District, school communities are seeing real benefits from keeping phones out of the classroom: more conversations between students, less social anxiety, longer attention spans, and even higher attendance.”
Virginia House Education Chairman Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, said legislators had been discussing a potential ban on school cellphones since convening an educational summit after legislative elections at the end of 2023.
“It is clearly an addiction that we have collectively,” said Rasoul, who sponsored one of the two bills that the assembly adopted this year on cellphones in schools. “It is one we need to take on, especially at a young age.”
Youngkin’s executive order on July 9 “took us by surprise in that there was not a conversation,” he said.
However, Democrats who control both chambers of the General Assembly adopted legislation to require all elementary and secondary schools to develop policies on student cellphones during regular school hours. Defining when the policy must apply was the primary sticking point between the legislature and the Republican governor, who insisted that it apply “from bell to bell.” Earlier this month, the legislature agreed to his amendments.
“Since Governor Youngkin’s executive order last July, Virginia has been leading the nation on bell-to-bell phone-free education,” Youngkin spokesman Rob Damschen said on Friday. “He welcomes bipartisan support for the actions that he started in Virginia, but has not reviewed and cannot comment the legislation.”
Vindman, like Youngkin, relied on advice from social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation” and a prominent national advocate for getting cellphones out of school classrooms. Haidt appeared with Virginia first lady Suzanne Youngkin at a public “fireside chat” last fall in eastern Prince William County, where the congressman and his family live.
The governor recently posted on X that he had shared copies of Haidt’s book with all 140 members of the General Assembly.
“No other policy change would confer as big and as rapid a benefit to American schools as freeing students from the constant distractions of the buzzing phones in their pockets,” Haidt said in the news release that Vindman’s office issued on April 7 to announce the newly elected congressman’s legislation. “To support kids’ mental health, educational success, and ability to pay attention, all schools in America should go bell-to-bell phone free.”
Vindman said he’s also been talking to students who support the policy.
“This phone policy has helped me become a better student this year,” Stafford High School senior Dominic Smith said in Vindman’s announcement. “I have the best grades since I started school my freshman year. I’ve accomplished so much this last year because I haven’t always been on my phone and it’s been amazing to realize how distracting my phone has really been.”
Robertson said Stafford began working on the policy months before Youngkin issued his executive order. The school system was hearing parents and teachers express concerns about the negative effects of cellphones in classrooms.
“We were ahead of the curve with our policy,” she said.
Stafford’s policy does not take away anyone’s phone. Instead, the policy initially leaves it to students to turn off their phones and put them away for the school day.
“We really put the onus on the students,” Robertson said. “We really give them the opportunity to make the right decision.”
When students violate the policy — and 3 percent to 4 percent do each month — the teacher alerts the school administration and security, which handles the situation away from the classroom and involving the student’s parents. The school requires the student to put the phone in a locked bag, but does not take it away.
Some students don’t take the message to heart after the first violation, she acknowledged. “We do have some students, unfortunately, who make the wrong decision more than once.”
However, Robertson said students generally have embraced the policy, which she said has reduced absenteeism, improved grades and led to greater involvement in clubs and other student activities.
“The level of resistance was not at all what we expected,” she said.
©2025 Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
