Can teenagers go an entire school day without looking at their phones? 

Teachers and administrators in the Roanoke Valley will soon know the answer.

This year, upon action from the state legislature and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, there is a “bell-to-bell” prohibition on cell phone use, which now includes high schoolers. The state took action to create a better environment with students focused and ready to learn, versus checking out the latest on Instagram and TikTok. 

Numerous studies show that adolescent use of phones during the school day is significant. One, published earlier this year by the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, found that teens spend an average of 1.5 hours on their smartphones during the school day. A 2023 study cited by RCPS – from the nonprofit Common Sense Media – found that 97 percent of students 11 to 17 use their phones during the school day.

With Roanoke schools starting Tuesday, there was preparation throughout the summer and plugged on the division’s social media pages. Roanoke’s policy gives no wiggle room. It reads: “Students in grades PK–12 may not use cell phones or other wireless communication devices at any time during the school day.”

The city, Roanoke County and Salem school systems have differences in their policies and their applications. 

Roanoke County allows high schoolers to use their phones during lunch and class breaks. The county school year started last week. Asked how the situation is going, division spokesman Chuck Lionberger wrote in an email Tuesday that students are adjusting “just fine.”

In Salem, with the school year starting Monday, cell phone lockers are being provided for students. The school system spent about $25,000 for 690 lockers, said city spokesman Mike Stevens. Roanoke and Roanoke County are not providing such storage for students, according to spokespeople for those divisions.

Roanoke school officials expect there will be difficulties with the policy.

It will only work if everyone involved — from administrators to teachers to parents to students — have shared accountability, said Jesse Mazur, the division’s executive director of alternative programs, student accountability, and special projects.

“That said, we also realize the enforcement of this policy may likely lead to challenging interactions,” Mazur said during a recent school board meeting.

Roanoke teachers and principals, who will be on the frontline of enforcement, were issued talking points to be ready for defiant students, and those include avoiding power struggles, remaining calm, choosing words carefully and offering choices instead of consequences.

The first two weeks of the school year will be used to remind students the policy is in place and to issue verbal warnings. Consistent enforcement of violations will then begin. 

The consequences range from a phone being confiscated just for a class period to a parent being required to come to a school to pick up a phone as the result of multiple offenses. 

Parents and students were required to sign a form acknowledging that they had been informed of the policy.

If students need to use a phone, they are being provided at each school’s main office, according to the division’s policy. Also, if a phone is damaged during or after it is confiscated, the school system nor staffer involved will be liable, the policy states.

Parents and students raise issues from the need for students to have access to their phones if an emergency occurs to how phones will be stored away.

Roanoke Vice Mayor Terry McGuire was a substitute in the city schools. He began a full-time teacher’s assistant job Tuesday.

Student use of their phones during instructional time is a “big problem,” he said, adding that he's supportive of the new policy.

He said substitutes could face a different situation, because they will be coming into classrooms on an infrequent basis, presenting a potential opportunity for students to try to take advantage. McGuire said he once watched a student watch blooper-type videos on his phone during a whole class period.

Consistent enforcement from across the division on a day-to-day basis will be a key to the policy’s success, said a city schools spokeswoman.