Wittman forum for Henrico families addresses rising concerns about social media use and phones in schools

Walk into a high school cafeteria and you might expect the typical chaotic atmosphere of students chatting and laughing, maneuvering around tables. But today, you are more likely to be met with the silence of students grouped together but all focused on their own phones, according to Henrico Schools Director of Student Support and Wellness Liz Parker.

“It is silent. It’s very jarring if you’re not expecting it, because while kids are all sitting together, everybody’s on their phone,” Parker said. “So it’s a very, very different experience than it used to be.”

Cell phones and social media have completely changed the landscape of K-12 schools, said Parker. At a social media safety seminar hosted Aug. 16 by U.S. Congressman Rob Wittman (VA-01) at the Tuckahoe Area Library, Parker and other panelists discussed issues of online safety, cell phones in schools, cyberbullying, and students’ mental health.

Cyberbullying on social media has become a major concern for Henrico students and parents. In an HCPS division-wide survey conducted in February, almost 50% of 3-12th grade students said that their school had a cyberbullying problem, while 30% of parents agreed. About two-thirds of students and 50% of parents also reported a social bullying problem at their school.

“Over 50% of our children have experienced some form of cyberbullying, and for many it’s 24/7,” Wittman said. “It used to be that you’d experience bullying for maybe a little period of time at school. Now, unfortunately with social media being all around us, it ends up being 24/7 threats.”

Cell phones and social media also can lead to students engaging in more physical bullying and fights during the school day, with students being able to mobilize other students very quickly and even advertise fights on social media, Parker said, causing “pretty serious and significant challenges” for school administrators and families.

“Things that might be minor disagreements or just minor conflicts, they can escalate very, very quickly through the use of social media during the school day,” she said. “You end up having more students attend the fight, engage in a fight, and at the same time then video the fight and then post the fight, so that families see the fight and come to the school and then students in other schools also see the fight – all within 30 minutes.”

Recently, Henrico Schools has taken measures to limit cell phone usage in schools, but not outright ban students from using cellphones at lunch or in between classes. On Aug. 9, the division released updated cell phone policies that require students to store their phones away in their backpack or a division-provided storage container during all classes.

The Virginia Department of Education recommends school divisions take a stricter approach, however, releasing draft cell phone policies on Aug. 15 that encouraged schools to ban phones “bell-to-bell,” meaning students could not have access to their phones for the entire school day.

For now, HCPS has decided to stick to allowing students to use phones in between classes. There even can be times when phone usage could be allowed by the teacher in the classroom for learning, Parker said, and HCPS still supports appropriate usage of technology in the classroom when it comes to teaching.

“The use of technology – not necessarily social media – but there still is use of technology in the classroom that is appropriate within the learning context in small doses,” she said. “I really do think that because there’s use of technology in the working world, we have to prepare kids for that.”

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Social media and online literacy is a significant focus in HCPS, Parker said. Virginia requires public schools to integrate digital learning within the curricula, outlining Standards of Learning for K-12 classrooms. HCPS school counselors hold parent workshops on technology and social media use each year and HCPS also hosts division-wide workshops at the Bridge Builders Academy.

“At the end of the day, I think a lot of this really is social media literacy. And at the school, we really have a profound responsibility to teach social media literacy to children,” Parker said. “It’s understanding what cyberbullying is…and teaching children to be in spaces online that make them feel better about themselves, that give them energy, that don’t drain their energy.”

In recent years, children and teens also have had to navigate serious online threats, such as sextortion and online blackmail. Kathryn Rifenbark, the director of CyberTipline at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said that she saw more than a 300% increase in reports regarding online enticement and sextortion from 2021 to 2023.

Rifenbark has also seen an increase in financial sextortion, particularly targeting teenage boys, a group that is likely to under report or be hesitant to seek help. For many children, a stranger reaching out on social media may not seem as unusual or suspicious as it would to adults, Rifenbark said, as a large part of children’s social spheres now resides in the online world and through online connections.

“It might seem to us that if someone random contacted us online, we would think we’re not going to talk to that person,” she said. “But for kids these days, a lot of their connections are made online, and these offenders are really good at creating fake profiles that appear like they are someone the child might know in real life.”

On school-provided devices, HCPS uses “Securely,” an educational software platform, to help flag and identify different words or phrases that might be concerning or inappropriate, Parker said. Parents can download similar software or restrictions on their home devices or their child’s devices as well.

But Parker encourages parents to not solely rely on security software, which many students have been able to get around.

“They’re always one step ahead of us, so I do always caution parents not to have a false sense of security,” she said. “Some will use this or this and they’ll think, ‘Okay, well I don’t have to monitor as closely because I’ve now installed this.’”

The key is for parents to establish open lines of communication and certain expectations around technology use with their children, Parker said, helping their students navigate a more digital world positively and safely.

“We always say the paradox of social media, two things can be true at the same time: you can protect your child online and keep them safe while also providing them with the autonomy and independence they need to grow,” she said. “It’s that open communication that’s so important.”

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.