Exclusive Interview on Student Cell Phone Guidelines with Meridian H.S. Principal Peter Laub

What’s happening with the new 2024 cell phone guidelines at Falls Church City’s Meridian High School?

We grew curious in the wake of the U.S. Surgeon General’s May 2023 advisory to place warning labels on social media for teens, recent studies linking excessive social media use to anxiety and depression for young people, mounting nationwide complaints from teachers about cell phone distractions in the classroom, and Virginia Gov. Youngkin’s July 9 Executive Order 33 to ​​“take immediate actions to protect the health and safety of students in Virginia’s K-12 public schools by issuing guidance on the establishment of cell phone-free education policies and procedures.”

The Falls Church Independent interviewed Meridian H.S. Principal Peter Laub, over coffee and pastries at Godfrey’s, to find out what new student cell phone guidelines are in place at the secondary level, how well they’re working so far this year, and how the guidelines fit into the school’s core philosophy and mission. 

For Laub, a cell phone (or other connected electronic device such as a smartwatch, tablet, or laptop) – if used by students improperly – can lead to distractions and social/emotional harms. However, those same devices, if used appropriately, can also serve as important educational and organizational tools for maturing kids and young adults navigating through an increasingly digitized cultural and academic landscape.  

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) program principal, Laub has carved out an effective path to balance the problem of classroom distraction from students’ personal cell phones or other connected devices (smartwatches, iPads, MacBooks, etc.), against students’ needs to learn how to “self-regulate” and to maturely integrate e-devices into their lives as they progress toward adulthood, college, and/or careers.  

Having grown up in the City of Falls Church and been a student himself at George Mason H.S. before it became Meridian H.S. in 2020, Laub recalled adjusting to the arrival of cell phones in the school setting and dealing with the pandemic that required a paradigm shift to digital instruction. “I’ve been at Meridian since 2011. I started as an English teacher and a Journalism teacher. I’ve been in administration at Meridian since 2020,” Laub said. “That summer of 2020 was my first year as an [Assistant Principal] AP. So, the very first thing I did was rewrite the entire student handbook for Covid.” 

“But I also graduated from George Mason H.S. as a student a long time ago. I grew up in Falls Church and know the community pretty well. And I’m happy here,” Laub said. “It’s a great school and I love the community. And I have seen it transform into something very different – the school, the City, all of it. Kids always ask me if it’s weird 'to work at your old high school?,' and I say, ‘It’s not my high school.’ [Laughs]. ‘It’s something completely different.’”

New Technologies Hit The Schools

Laub recalls how quickly technology changed the lives of teachers and students in his first years of teaching at George Mason H.S. “I taught in the old building. And we got Gmail as teachers. And this was a big deal! We could email parents! [Laughs], And my colleagues were like, ‘Oh, we’re used to the phone thing.’ And the second year we got laptops for the students [on] a cart in the classroom. And by the third year we were seeing cell phones. And this was around 2011, 2012, 2013.” 

In those days, technology use and student devices in the classroom were “like the Wild West,” Laub recalls. But skilled teachers and responsive students were able to adapt mostly in healthy ways. “But, what were we doing with this?," they were asking. And, while teaching, they had to say to students, "Hey maybe you shouldn’t take a phone call during class?"

On the other hand, however, new devices in the classroom brought new learning possibilities. "Can you use your phone to look up something that’s pertinent to the class? Well, yeah, absolutely," Laub recalled thinking. So, it was also a "great tool" that could answer questions quickly and save the class a trip to the library.

And, fortunately at the time, the Falls Church City School Board and the administration of George Mason H.S. responded effectively to the onslaught of new devices in the schools. 

“Falls Church City did a lot of work very intentionally around 2014, 2015, and 2016-ish around instructional technology,” Laub recalls. “We tried to package it all together, phones, laptops, etc. How can a public school system use this as an instructional tool for kids? How [might] students use their phones in class for instructional purposes? And there was a lot of gamification of education then, right? So, if I’m doing a vocabulary review for 8th grade students –  because I taught 8th grade English – we could take out our phones and could all collectively play this vocab review game… Kahoot!. And we got a lot of education as teachers [on] how to use this instructionally.”

Just a few years later, Falls Church City adopted an instructional technology “one-to-one program” where each high school student would be supplied a school laptop. After several pilot projects, the City’s sole high school selected one of the premier educational devices available, the MacBook. “And they’re fantastic. I mean, yes, it’s like driving a very nice car, and it’s not just that it looks good, but it’s really effective for what we do instructionally,” Laub said. 

Student cell phone use in the classroom, however, presented ongoing challenges. But, each teacher was trusted with devising their own cell phone use policies in their own classrooms. “But, the phones, I would say going forward, as a teacher, I learned that [they] needed to be part of my classroom management strategy. What’s the rule for today? What’s the rule for this hour of class?,” Laub said. “But, up until this school year, George Mason/Meridian, their cell phone policy was that teachers set the rules and the policies.”

Such a teacher-centric approach made sense to Laub, because teachers and students have such a variety of needs and students range far and wide in terms of ages, grade levels, and maturity. So, more flexibility is required for students nearing graduation. 

Is it a “progressive educational approach?," I asked, having taught at a progressive high school myself. “Yes. Especially, in this context for high school, you’re talking about kids ages 14-up-to-18, so progressive in that sense as well,” Laub said. “These 18-year-olds are sometimes in school for only two or three classes because they’re managing the shop where they work, or they’re running their service organization, or organizing their Eagle Scout project, or whatever they do. So, they’re in eight different places, which is the appropriate transition toward the next level.”

Pandemic Paradigm Shift

But when the pandemic struck in the spring of 2020 students had to spend close to a year attending classes online. Problems with excessive screen and social media use, social isolation and teen mental/emotional health gained attention. “Coming out of the pandemic it was probably where we saw a significant change in schools. [The students] were back. And we saw changes in student behaviors all across the board," Laub recalled. "And this was going on all over the country. This was no secret or anything. Mental health issues. Students acting out in ways we hadn’t seen before. Poor socialization skills. Poor behavior-in-public-setting skills. Kids hadn’t been in a classroom for a full calendar year, almost. And that was really hard. And phones were part of that.” 

During the pandemic, school administrators were chiefly concerned with students’ social distancing and how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on campus. But now that the pandemic pressures are off, schools can return to focusing on educational technology and the challenges of student cell phone use. 

Long before Gov. Youngkin issued his July 9 Order 33 calling for “cell-phone free educational policies and procedures,” M.H.S. Principal Laub and Steve Pickering, principal of Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School, were already strategizing about strengthening student cell-phone use guidelines in each school (on their shared campus) and the Falls Church City School Board was already holding hearings. “Last school year, we definitely re-engaged with some dialogue with parents around technology in general and technology in schools,” Laub said. “It was something that Steve Pickering, who’s the principal of the middle school, and I were already thinking about last year.”

Clearly, stronger cell phone guidelines were required. “This teacher-centric policy at the High School might need some tweaking and adjustment,” Laub decided. “We were already thinking that we either have to modify this policy on our own, or adjust this policy, do education guidelines, some sort of strengthening of enforcement. We heard from teachers as well, saying, ‘Hey, it’s not as effective. So, what are we doing?’ And I think the Falls Church City School Board addressed this before the Governor. The [Governor's order was in July]. The School Board had a conversation in May or June.”

Falls Church City Acts Before Gov. Youngkin's Order 33

So, in the spring of 2023, Meridian H.S. engaged in “conversations with parents, some dialogues, formally and informally, with our teachers and with our students,” Laub said. “We surveyed some of our students to see, ‘Hey, what are you guys thinking?’ And we invited parents in and did a workshop with parents at the school.”

So, what cell phone guidelines did Laub end up suggesting to the School Board?

It all boils down to a very simple prescription: “There are no phones allowed in instructional spaces in the High School.”

Now, if students bring their cell phones to school – which they are obviously not required to do –  they must place their phones in a numbered “phone cubby” in the classroom at the start of class and then retrieve their phone at class’s end. Instead of relying on student cell phones, teachers can guide student learning on their school-issued MacBooks. 

But, in keeping with Laub’s view that students, as they mature, should be granted some latitude to “self-regulate” their use of cell phones and social media, they’re still allowed to access their devices during their lunch breaks – which are “fine because it’s not an ‘instructional space’ – as well as during Mustang Hour (a student free study/activity period), and their passing times between classes. 

But, “in the classroom, they’re out,” Laub said definitively.

So, how do Governor Youngkin’s student cell phone guidelines differ from those allowed by the Falls Church City School Board currently at Meridian H.S.? It turns out, the Governor supports banning student cell phone access "in the school building from bell to bell,” according to Laub. So, students could still use their phones “before or after school” or “at soccer practice” after school, “or whatever.” 

For Laub, such a strict ban on student cell phone access during the entire school day would not be optimal for creating an environment where students are entrusted to learn how to use their devices to help organize their busy schedules, to communicate with peers and family, and to integrate technology healthily into their day-to-day lives. But, Laub emphasizes that he stands ready to implement whatever cell phone guidelines and procedures the School Board ultimately decides. Per Order 33, they have until Jan. 1, 2025 to decide.

“I’ll say what we’re doing, I think, is working,” Laub said, in praise of the school's current cell phone guidelines. “I’ve said it publicly to the School Board and I’ll say it here. I think the change we made this year is working. We have very positive feedback from teachers. Positive feedback from students. And we have certainly told the School Board, we anticipate some kids and parents will push back. There was initially some of that, a little bit, but [the program] seems to be working.”

Isn’t it surprising that students would respond well to having their own cell phone use restricted during the school day?

“Our students are smart. They understand. They know it’s distracting. And the thing I like about this policy we’re doing now is that it makes sense for teenagers,” Laub said. “They get that, ‘I need to focus when I’m in this class and putting this away allows me to focus. And, then I have a lot of freedom where I can carry on with my life.’ And for 17 or 18 year-olds, that life exists digitally and physically. And kids do both. Kids sit down with a big group at lunch and they’re talking and they’re chatting and are sometimes [bonking] each other over the heads with water bottles [Laughs] and are doing the things teenagers do.”

So, if the School Board decides to require students to put away phones “in the building from bell to bell,” Laub said, “I will enforce it and we will do what is [required]. But, what we’re hearing from our teachers and from our students is that what we’re doing is working.”

Laub also reassures that school counselors, advisors, and psychological staff are well trained to keep their eyes out for student mental health concerns arising from excessive screen time and cell phone use. In the school’s Advisory Program, “some of the curriculum is explicit teaching about how to engage with peers in this way, and that way, in and out of school, and at a Homecoming Dance, and at a football game,” Laub said.

“I think our counselors are fantastic, truly,” Laub continued. “And I think Falls Church City invests heavily in mental health resources, which is great. And they’re trained highly in that…. And I think that’s an important question for us to ask as a society. What is the data point we want to nudge with these policies?"

For Laub, the key data point centers on measuring student "engagement."

A few years ago, Laub concentrated the school's attention on “student engagement” for measuring student emotional/mental health and a nurturing teaching and learning environment. “We focused as a school administration looking at what we call 'engagement' in the classroom. How can you get kids coming to the classroom after Covid to engage with their peers, to learn, and that’s still what I’m most interested in walking into a classroom. How healthy is the engagement?”

The trick is for teachers to stimulate healthy engagement in the classroom by varying their instructional modes – sometimes with instructional technology – to spark student curiosity and healthy interactions with other learners. And, of course, in a stimulating learning environment, sometimes engagement involves quietly listening or observing and other times dynamic and seemingly chaotic activities in the classroom. Laub points to the classroom use of Edpuzzle, where students will be prompted in the middle of an instructional video to answer a particular learning prompt, such as “Hey, you just watched the first half of this experiment, now predict what’s going to happen.”

Phones for Emergencies?

So, what about those students and parents who want to have cell phone access during the school day in case of an emergency? “I would say, we have a very modern and safe high school with a lot of safety elements in it. We have a full time School Resource Officer (SRO) and we have partnered with our first responders here in Falls Church City on drilling and training the kids. We’ve done these sorts of drills and the kids have shown they’re awesome. So, I would say, focus on the school being safe. We work in a safe community. And we hope to continue that way. And if it does happen, then the adults will make sure the kids stay safe.” The school also has a rapid communication resource with FCCPS Alert to notify students and parents in cases of emergency. 

Laub understands why parents and kids might want phones on hand in case of emergencies. “Everyone is concerned about that,” he said. “And cell phones and the technology in the phone, not just that I can call you, but I can text you, I can see your locations, I can see what apps you’re using – for a lot of parents, that’s both a security and an educational part. And…. that’s why we’re educating kids about this. Sometimes we show kids, ‘Hey, here are some cool things you can do with your phone, not just watching a video or playing a game. Here are some life skills. We show kids how to use calendars on their phones, how to set your notifications, how to make sure the only notifications that come to you are the important ones…” 

Laub has heard students make the case that a “bell to bell” cell phone policy would not make them feel safer in school. “Students have made this case to me. Not the student body at large, but I’ve heard some kids say, ‘Yeah, I want to be able to use my phone in case of emergency.’ Parents have also said they want their kids [to have phones] in case of emergency.’... But my job is to keep the kids safe in school and I’ll do that with or without phones.”

Speaking as a Parent

As the parent of a 5th grader and a 2nd grader in Falls Church City schools, Laub understands well the challenges parents face when regulating their own kids’ device usage. “Like all parents, I wrestle with my kids’ screen time,” Laub said. “I wrestle with their various healthy engagements with the world around them, in school or out of school. My 5th grader is obsessed with baseball. So, he wants nothing more than to watch YouTube highlights of baseball games and things like that. But, we’re educating him at home about when you get to do that. It’s after you’ve done your chores. It’s when you’ve done this or that. And he’s learning now that ‘If I do my chores and that sort of thing, I can get to watch YouTube and if I have friends who are also into baseball and want to watch, I can invite them over and we can watch together.’ And we talk about 'healthy engagement.' "

The School Board's Collaborative Approach

So, where does Meridian’s school cell phone policy go from here?

While it’s working well now, Laub believes, the final policy guidance is up to the Falls Church City School Board. But, fortunately, they’ve done a great job with listening to the school community, he said. They recently listened to “any and all students who wanted to come to engage with them.”

And the student turnout was inspiring. “The School Board had a great little protocol. We had a hundred-ish students and they split them into a few groups. And asked some questions for the kids…. They put the questions up on the screen and they had a QR code up for anyone who didn’t attend – which I enjoyed because of the irony and I think they enjoyed the irony as well – so kids got to [engage]. And nothing makes me happier as a former Journalism teacher, having the students engage [their] voices directly with their civic leaders, right? So, it was awesome and I applaud our School Board for doing that and coming out and talking directly to the people whom the policy is going to most affect.”

Student Voices Help Sway Policy

In an Aug. 13, 2024 Falls Church City School Board meeting, two rising seniors from Meridian H.S. – Senior Class President, Grace Calabrese and Charlotte Rice  – testified about the importance of preventing cell phone distractions in the classroom during the school day, while also providing compelling examples of how they use cell phones to better organize their days and communicate with others on important matters. In the classrooms, Rice and Calabrese said, teachers need to set clear guidelines and expectations and phones should be put away. 

If the phone “is on my desk” during class, Calabrese told the School Board, then it’s something I want to pick up. And that dopamine rush, like Mr. Laub was saying, is really hard to fight. So, I think self-regulation is important, but I think it needs to start with some kind of regulation by teachers – whether that be the phone cubby, or a phone basket… And as you go through the year [you] realize that maybe it’s enough to just have [the phone] during lunch or just have it during passing period. That behavior becomes learned and then you have that form of self-regulation.”

When asked about any concerns she might have with the new requirements that phones be put away in the “phone cubby” at the start of class, Rice deadpanned, “I would say that the majority of students are definitely concerned with getting their own phone back. [Audience Laughs].

Asked by School Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan what students did on their phones when they were in the school building but not in class, Calabrese described the busy life of a young school leader in need of a phone for organizational and scheduling purposes. “I don’t want to paint a picture that when you’re in class you’re fully focused on class and then when you come out you’re glued to that phone for the 5 or 6 minutes before you go to your next class,” Calabrese said. Sure, during Mustang Block, students might watch a TV show. "But, I think very often the phone is in the pocket and students are engaging with their friends, they’re at a [school] club, they’re engaging with their teachers, and it’s not necessarily something that you want all the time to be on social media or you want to be texting. It’s something you want to have as a backup.”

“Because, for me, I use it for constant reminders,” Calabrese said. “I’d never know where my meetings were, when they were, or who they were with, if I didn't have those reminders on my phone. Or if I didn’t have the convenience of texting my mom who’s sitting back there [Points] during Mustang Block, you know, checking my email during lunch. So, I don’t want to give you the misconception that we need our phones for that whole time, and if we don’t get it, we’re gonna crash out. It’s just that it’s extremely convenient to have those things for something that you can’t do on your computer or you have a reminder from a friend that you’re missing a club meeting. So, it’s more about convenience than reliance.”

Hearing from All the Stakeholders

Laub appreciates that the process is “not exclusively a one-way street,” with the School Board. “Quite often in Falls Church, it’s a collaborative effort. Which I appreciated, going back to the beginning of the year, the School Board invited the schools to come share what they were going to do for the school year, and quite frankly, they asked us our opinion. We brought teachers to that meeting and teachers got to express what they were thinking…”

The School Board has also hosted many meetings for the different stakeholders on the school cell phone issue. “The School Board’s coming on Wednesday, November 6, for an hour to meet with the staff,” Laub said. The students weighed in on Oct. 18 and students who missed the meeting could still respond to the prompts on the School Board’s QR coded questions. And the board met on Oct. 27 with ESOL families. And on Nov. 13, there will be a meeting from 7 - 8:00 p.m. for parents at the Learning Stairs in the High School. 

Putting on Two Hats

Though it was time to finish our coffee and for Principal Laub to return to the Meridian campus, he was moved to put two hats on –  first, as a principal, then as a parent.

First, he wanted to emphasize that Meridian’s cell phone policy is determined by the School Board and that he’s ready to abide by their decisions. “I’ll formally repeat that it’s the School Board’s policy. If they set the policy, and that’s their decision, then we will follow up with their decision. And, I’m very appreciative that this Board is taking the opportunity to hear from all the stakeholders. That’s so, so important. I’m very glad to work and live in a place that’s doing that. Because there’s a version of this that could play out in another city… [where] it’s very top-down and the School Board hasn’t engaged with the teachers, the students, the parents of ESOL families – and that's amazing. And I’m very happy they’re doing that… I’m glad there’s a healthy collective process.”

Then, he spoke as a dad. “As a parent, I’ve been given opportunities. As a principal, I’ve been given opportunities. I appreciate the invitation to speak directly to the School Board itself. That was really great to be able to articulate the plan in the High School. And as a parent, I’ve been given plenty of opportunities to engage. And the other thing I appreciate is the School Board really is considering this from the range of kids ages 5 to 18, because the way a 5-year-old interacts with a cell phone is completely different from the way an 18-year-old acts with one. I appreciate that they’re considering that… the brain development and developmental issues, and all of that.”

By Christopher Jones