In July of 2024, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order mandating that schools implement a bell-to-bell phone-free school policy. This was amid increased concern that phones are distracting during the school day. Our school’s new phone policy, complying with the executive order, involves locking phones in school-distributed Yondr pouches. Students now have to show a form of identification (ID) when entering the school in the morning. Patriot Period is now more restricted: advisory only occurs on Tuesdays and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is learned during class time.
“Teachers are overwhelmingly finding it easier to get kids to come for help for Patriot Period, feeling like there’s more of an academic focus on during that time … and [they’re] not battling phones every day,” our school’s principal Kevin Clark said.
Many students take the risk to not put their phone in the Yondr pouch. If caught, they face severe consequences from administrators. For a first offense, students are asked to pouch their phone. A second offense results in a lunch or patriot period detention, and for the third offense students are given after school detention. A fourth or subsequent violation results in a parent conference, and the student turning in their phone at the door for ten or more days.
This year, students continue to show their identification when they enter the school building in the morning. After an intruder entered the school building last year, administrators noted that people who were not students could easily enter the building in the morning. Our school implemented a new policy to increase security. However, students are now required to show a physical ID rather than StudentVUE. Physical and digital student IDs serve as an extra level of security. The new ID checks allow admin and security to confirm that students are currently enrolled at our school.
“I do think it’s effective to have the ID checks at the door, just because it gives us the extra layer of protection to make sure that the only people that are coming into this building are people that should be here,” Dean of Students Eva Irwin said.
The Patriot Period schedule is also vastly different from last year. Previously, students were required to stay with their assigned Patriot Period teacher on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This year, our school requires students to stay in advisory on Tuesdays and allows students to be in a single classroom of their choice on all other days of the week. If students are not in a classroom by 10:51 a.m. students will either be hall swept or told to go to class by security guards and administrators.
“Patriot Period and advisory has been something we’ve been working on for the last five or six years. This past year, working with our leadership team… [we] wanted to focus Patriot Period more on academic support,” Clark said.
Previously a central focus of Patriot Period, SEL is no longer being taught in advisory and is now demonstrated by students during classes.
“Our effort this year is to get SEL instruction into the classroom, embedding it into what is happening in the classroom. A good example is you might be in science class doing a lab and thinking about social awareness,” Clark said.
Feedback from teachers and staff regarding the new school policies has been immensely positive.
With positive feedback from staff, the new policies are here to stay. While students have to face more restrictive policies, our school’s administration believes that these policies are working to create a better school environment.
