GENEVA COUNTY, Ala. (WTVY) – The Geneva County Board of Education and each school’s social media pages have announced changes to the system’s code of conduct. One of the biggest changes involves the cell phone policy.
Superintendent Becky Birdsong said, “We’ve decided to allow the kids to have them at school, but they have to have the whole day off and can’t use them at recess or lunch or anywhere else.”
Birdsong said this change is essential to students’ success in the classroom and their mental well-being, a sentiment recently echoed by Dr. Eric Mackey, Alabama State Superintendent of Schools.
“We know the research is clear,” Mackey said. “If you ban cell phones from school, there are fewer discipline problems and grades improve.”
Birdsong said the problems caused by cell phones in schools outweigh the costs of the new rule.
“We’ve had issues with inappropriate photos and people not wanting to be photographed, all the way to cell phone scams,” Birdsong said. “You know, there’s the social media aspect of it.”
The policy states that a child may have his or her phone if he or she needs it for medical reasons.
Another change this school year is that only clear water bottles with screw tops are allowed. Birdsong told News4 that Geneva County Schools has seen incidents of alcohol being brought in water bottles. This change goes back to the school system’s standards before the pandemic.
Birdsong said, “If you look back to before COVID, we didn’t allow water bottles, we had drinking fountains, and we still have drinking fountains.”
They have also installed bottle fillers to make it easier for students to fill their clear bottles.
The changes also affect the backpack and bag policy. Students must now leave their backpacks in their lockers throughout the school day. Birdsong explained the reason for this change.
“It got to the point where the backpacks were everywhere,” she said. “So the kids could take their e-cigarettes with them. E-cigarettes have become a big problem.”
This policy change will begin to eliminate that problem, as Birdsong said her school leaders have already seen a decrease in the number of students trying to smoke e-cigarettes.
When the policy changes were first announced this summer, social media was flooded with mixed reactions from parents.
Superintendent Birdsong told parents of Geneva County School students, “I think our kids pick up their attitudes and perceptions of things from their parents. So if we’re positive and say, ‘You know what? They’re just trying to keep you focused so you can learn.'”
Samson and Slocomb middle and high schools have enforced all of the policies mentioned above. Geneva County middle and high schools have adopted the digital device and water bottle changes, but not the backpack policy.
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