Richmond Public Schools’ 6th District School Board member Shonda Harris-Muhammed, announced at Monday night’s School Board meeting that she will host a virtual town hall meeting on Nov. 20 with RPS Chief Wellness Officer Renesha Parks, in preparation for Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s cell phone ban policy.

The town hall meeting will inform the community about cell phone expectations for students and families, provide updates on the RPS cell phone policy, and then open the floor for parents’ questions. Muhammed encouraged the RPS community to participate in the discussion.

“RPS – in this area – led the charge to begin the process of eliminating cell phones during instructional time,” Harris-Muhammed said.

Gov. Youngkin signed Executive Order 33 on July 9, a policy implementing a cell phone-free education during class time due to mental health concerns among students – driven by excessive social media usage – and to avoid distractions during learning periods. Executive Order 33 gives each school division the authority to adopt local policies that are “age appropriate.”

The policy will be in effect in all school divisions statewide starting Jan. 1. RPS stated it would eliminate all cell phone usage in its facilities from the start of the school bell to dismissal and it includes hallways, restrooms, cafeterias and outdoor areas during school hours unless expressly permitted.

Since the implementation of Executive Order 33, the policy has drawn mixed reactions in the RPS community. While the policy ban has been praised by parents, teachers and other school faculties, many students did not view the ban positively. In the Oct. 21 meeting, RPS presented an anonymous survey of students, of which a majority opposed the ban.

One comment read, “Cell phones are useful in a classroom setting when more than half of the resources we need to use are blocked on Chromebooks. It’s annoying as a student when you can’t use a source you need because it’s blocked and you can’t use your phone to access it.”

While newly elected 1st District School Board member,Matthew Percival is for banning the use of cell phones in the classroom, he has been vocal in opposing Youngkin’s authority over local schools.

“It’s essentially like writing a letter of recommendation to the school boards,” Percival said. “Sure, we’ll take it under advisement, but this is not something that’s in the purview of the governor to do.”