This story was originally published as part of the Washington Association of Black Journalists (WABJ) 2026 Urban Journalism Workshop and lightly edited for style and clarity.
The school day was nearly over when Ruth España Ramirez’s phone buzzed during science class. The principal of her Virginia high school had just sent an email to the school community, notifying them of a medical emergency involving a student on campus. Ramirez’s parents, who are not fluent in English, received the email and grew worried it was about her.
“They were calling me and calling me,” Ramirez said of the Feb. 20 incident.
But, like all public K-12 students across the state, Ramirez is banned from accessing personal devices during class. As soon as she picked it up, she said her teacher threatened to write her up.
In an effort to make students more engaged, lawmakers in Richmond passed a bill last January requiring local school districts to develop a policy to keep students away from their phones at school. At Potomac Falls, officials came up with their own version to comply with the law – allowing phone access in hallways and at lunch, but forcing students to drop their devices in “holders” during class time. That policy changed this year, and students can no longer use their phones from “bell to bell.”
Experts say the cellphone ban helps stop disruptive behavior and creates more instructional time in class. Teachers have seen benefits, too, they said, but the policy can be difficult to implement and can restrict students’ access to devices in classes where they really need them. At Potomac Falls, located in Sterling, Virginia, and part of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), students said they prefer the old policy, in which phone use was allowed during downtime and for certain classwork.
“Now that we don’t have our phones, all we think about is having our phones,” Ramirez said.
Enforcing a New Policy
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) issued an executive order in 2024, directing state education and health officials to issue “guidance on the establishment of cellphone-free education policies and procedures.”
“The necessity of implementing cellphone-free education in Virginia’s K-12 public schools is increasingly evident,” wrote Youngkin, adding that social media and cellphones were having a negative effect on students’ mental health. Banning phones during school, he said, would “significantly reduce the amount of time students can be on phones without parental supervision.”
Local school divisions were given six months to adopt their own policies and protocols, following guidance issued by the Virginia Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Department of Education, and the State Health Commissioner.
Potomac Falls High School’s initial policy required students to place their phones in phone “holders” during class time, while allowing them to access their devices during lunch and transitional times throughout the school day.
At a hearing before the Virginia House K-12 subcommittee last January– weeks into the first semester with the policy in place– lawmakers heard from the public and debated proposed improvements. That included adding smartwatches to the list of banned devices, enforcing the policy from “bell to bell,” altering punishments and making exceptions for students learning English and those with disabilities or health issues.
“We can’t prevent our children from making every mistake, but our job is to make it as difficult as possible for them to make these bad mistakes,” former Republican Del. Carrie Coyner said at the hearing.
A pattern emerged from the public testimonies. On the ground, teachers and administrators said they felt mystified about how to implement policies from their respective local school boards.
“It asks school boards to do it, but then dictates some of the things they can and cannot do,” said Lauren Klute, state officer and president-elect of Virginia PTA. The cell-phone ban is “prescriptive” in nature, she said.
When Potomac Falls High School Principal Tara Woolever heard about the ban before winter break, Woolever and the school’s administrative team planned how they would implement it, she wrote in a statement.
“[We] agreed that we needed to ensure the expectations were clearly communicated to students and staff and implement with a ‘“grace”’ mindset,” Woolever said.
Enforcing a new policy in the middle of the year is hard, she said, but “patience, grace, and reminders go a long way.”
“Overall, I’m very proud of our staff and students and how they have adjusted to the new policy,” she said.
Challenges With the Ban: ‘A Little Frustrating’
The cellphone ban has created challenges for some teachers, who previously allowed students to use their devices for research or other in-class work.
Emily Everett, who advises the school’s yearbook, broadcast and newspaper classes, said the policy significantly limits her ability to instruct student media. Before the ban, her courses had a one-to-one student-to-device ratio “because every kid has a cellphone.” Before the new policy, Evertt’s broadcast and yearbook students were easily able to film videos and conduct interviews around school. Now, she said, her students share a limited number of cameras and recorders among themselves. Her class of 60 broadcast students swap a set of four mics and cameras among themselves, she said. Many of whom aren’t even trained on how to use them.
With so many restrictions on their personal devices, Everett has noticed productivity is slower “because there’s a lot of waiting around for equipment to be available,” she said. Students in her class engage with each other less. The policy previously in place at the school, Everett said, “was more effective.”
Mariam Thomas, a ninth-grade English teacher, said enforcing the new policy herself in the classroom is “a little frustrating.” During a back-to-school night in August, Thomas said she heard from frustrated parents, too.
“A lot of parents came up to me and said, ‘My child really doesn’t have a cellphone.’ They’re not lying,” she said.
Since the new policy went into effect, students’ grades have gone down, she said.
“We need to bring back students putting their phones in their [phone] pockets and making that mandatory,” Thomas said.
However, the purpose of the newly enforced policy in LCPS was to increase engagement during instructional time and improve students’ test scores, according to Policy 8655.
Many students at the school don’t agree with the new policy and prefer the old way, with their phones held up in “pockets” hung on classroom walls.
“This policy looks like it’s not very thought-through,” said Ramirez, a sophomore. “They act as if social media being banned from inside the school prevent[s] fights, but they don’t realize that the majority of planning or problems with students happen outside of school, through social media.”
The new policy – forcing students to keep their devices in their pockets or bags the entire school day – makes their phones easier to access, not harder, she said.
Nearing the end of her first year in high school, freshman Vivian Hutton said the policy is similar to the one in place at her middle school.
“I think it’s stupid,” she said, adding that students are attached to their phones. Hutton sees others who don’t follow the rules. Students still share videos with their friends on social media throughout the school day, she said, “because they have their phones all on them, at all times.”
That could soon change. In early April, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed a bill that alters a single word in last year’s legislation – explicitly “prohibiting” smart devices in Virginia schools rather than “restricting” access to them.
At a recent subcommittee hearing, state Sen. Stella Pekarsky (D), who introduced the bill, said some school districts had misinterpreted the former governor’s executive order.
“We are just clarifying a word to make sure that everyone is on the same page and cellphones stay packed and out of sight during the instructional day,” Pekarsky said.
