At the direction of Executive Order 33 from Governor Glenn Youngkin, the School Board of the City of Portsmouth, at its Sept. 26 meeting, approved a cell phone-free education policy for Portsmouth Public Schools.
Highlights of the policy include:
- For elementary school students, cell phones are not to be used within the school building or on school grounds. If a parent wants their elementary student to bring a cell phone to school, the device must be turned off and stored away from the student during the school day.
- For middle and high school students, cell phones are not to be used during the bell-to-bell school day, but can be used before and after school. If middle and high school students bring cell phones to school, they must be stored and turned off during the bell-to-bell school day.
- All students are allowed to use their cell phones on school buses while being transported to and from school, but cell phones are not to be used by students on buses while being transported to field trips or other school-sponsored events.
- Consequences of violating the cell phone rule range from a verbal warning on the first offense to an out-of-school suspension for the fourth offense.
Mental Health Benefits
According to studies that have been compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, spending more than three hours a day on social media doubles the risk of poor mental health for adolescents.
Yet, research from the American Psychological Association (APA) found that children spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media with platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram accounting for 87 percent of children’s social media use. Specifically, 41% percent of teens with the highest social media use rate their overall mental health as poor or very poor, compared with 23% of those with the lowest use of social media.
A correlation has also been found between teenagers spending more time on social media platforms and the reporting of suicidal intent/self-harm and poor body image.
Finding More Information
To see the complete policy for Portsmouth Public Schools, please see the attached document. For any questions or concerns, please contact your child’s school directly or you can email [email protected].