Va. Lawmakers Ban Phones In School, Remove Punishment For Breaking The Law

In principle, legislation is usually preferable to executive orders. I’m talking at the state and federal level. They can’t be overturned with the flash of a pen by the next executive, for one thing.

This is why Congress needs to act quickly to enshrine President Trump’s executive orders in law.

But when legislators act, they can make things worse.

Case in point: The Virginia General Assembly, currently in Democrat control.

Last summer Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order telling schools that student cellphones must be banned during the school day. Exceptions were carved out for kids with disabilities that might require them to be able to use a phone for emergencies.

For reasons that are unclear, a number of school districts took their sweet time implementing Youngkin’s order, as if it required a great deal of work at the local level to tell the kids to leave their damned phones powered off and in their backpacks.

Next, the General Assembly decided to get in on the act and codify the rule. Democrats even lavished lukewarm praise on the governor, agreeing that cellphones were a distraction and don’t belong in the classroom. Neither do smartwatches.

Excellent! A rare flash of sanity from the far-left kooks in Richmond.

It was too good to be true, however. The bill that the lefties crafted blusters about the negative effects of cellphones but then rules that no child can be suspended, expelled OR EVEN REMOVED FROM CLASS for violating it.

From SB738: Finally, the bill clarifies (a) that no violation of any such student cell phone possession and use policy shall alone constitute (1) sufficient cause for a student's suspension or expulsion from attendance at school or (2) disruptive behavior authorizing a teacher to remove a student from class and (b) that any such violation that involves, coincides with, or results in an instance of disruptive behavior, as that term is defined in applicable law, shall be addressed in accordance with the regulations on codes of student conduct adopted by each school board pursuant to applicable law.

Apparently, chatting on a phone or playing video games is not considered disruptive behavior. Interesting. I would find it powerfully disruptive.

And kicking a kid out of class for using a phone in defiance of a state law would seem to be a no-brainer.

According to The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the bill passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 67-28, with no debate or discussion.

It had passed the Senate on a party-line vote of 21-18.

I have questions:

Why have a law and then remove punishment for breaking it? What happens to a kid who violates the no cellphone policy, does he or she have to stand in the corner? Wear a dunce cap? Go to detention?

Seriously, why put limits on what punishment schools can dish out to kids who knowingly violate the no cellphone rules?

A better question is what is it about Dems and their love of scofflaws?