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Roanoke schools approve cell phone restrictions

Students must have cell phones turned off and stowed away during class, Roanoke’s school board decided Tuesday in approving a new policy.

The board’s unanimous vote comes a week before school starts and as districts nationwide crack down on students texting friends, watching Netflix and even placing online bets during class.

“Taking the cell phones and the vapes,” board member Joyce Watkins said. “There's going to be some instruction now.”

But the policy appears to differ little from the district’s previous cell phone rule, which states that students’ phones must be turned off or in airplane mode and kept out of sight during class.

That’s not the reality, according to a district survey of teachers and staff.

Under the new policy, phones should be off and away for the entire school day for K-8 students, except in situations where a student may need a medical exception, which would require a doctor’s note. At high schools, students must keep phones turned off and away during class, but they may be allowed in the hallways and cafeteria.

Archie Freeman, the district's chief instructional and administrative officer, said phones stowed away means “out of sight and out of mind.” The district has not planned to introduce any sort of special phone lockers or cubbies, according to a district spokesperson.

Breaking the rule will result in a verbal warning, followed by confiscation and parental notification, then followed by an in-person parental conference, Freeman said.

Superintendent Verletta White said the new policy shows teachers that the administration and board have their back when it comes to enforcement.

“This is our first step,” she said. “We may have to come back and pivot and be a little more strict.”

The policy also applies to “wearable electronic devices,” such as smart watches, AirPods and headphones.

Roanoke County’s school board also adopted a similar policy, the district announced Tuesday.

A city school district survey from February found a slight majority of all 3,676 respondents said they would support cell phones being locked up at the beginning of class. Teachers and staff expressed the most support for restricting cell phone usage, while parents were more permissive and students largely in favor of unfettered access.

Three-quarters of all respondents admitted cell phones are a distraction to learning, and one in four educators reported they tell students to put phones away at least five times every class.

Faith leader says she's running for mayor

A faith leader who runs a national prayer group announced she is running for Roanoke mayor as a write-in candidate.

“Rev. Merrie Turner says she has been called by God to run for Mayor of Roanoke and plans to restore greatness to Virginia’s Blue Ridge by making Him First,” Turner said in a press release.

Turner said she lives in Roanoke County, but is speaking with The Hotel Roanoke about moving in “as soon as possible.” Turner said she lived in the hotel for about three months after her residence caught fire in late 2021.

(Nicholas Ocampo, the city’s director of elections, said Turner would need to move to the city and register to vote before the general election to be eligible.)

“I think it’s mainly pro-life,” Turner said when asked what local issues she was running on. “To me, there's been a very clear battle going on between good and evil, and right and wrong. …I feel like we're moving closer, much closer to the timing when, as a Christian, I feel the Lord will be returning for His church.” 

Turner says that since 1993 she has organized the Presidential Inaugural Prayer Breakfast, a nonprofit that hosts government and faith leaders.

Before moving back to the Roanoke area in 2016, Turner lived in Washington, D.C. She has worked as a real estate agent since 1983. Turner is a member of Roanoke Valley Republican Women. 

“I don't think he's even aware yet that I've been inspired by the Lord to run,” Turner said of the Republican nominee for mayor, David Bowers. “I don’t think he’s 100-percent pro-life.”

Candidates whose names will appear on the ballot include Bowers, Vice Mayor Joe Cobb, the Democratic nominee, and Councilwoman Stephanie Moon Reynolds, an independent. Early voting begins Sept. 20 for the Nov. 5 election.

Restoration begins at home for addicted mothers

Developers and treatment providers on Tuesday celebrated the start of restoring a new group home for pregnant women and new mothers who are addicted to drugs.

Restoration Housing said rehabilitation will take about six months on an old mansion at 1729 Patterson Avenue that Anderson Treatment left in 2022 for a new drug recovery home on Elm Avenue.

By early next year, The Twelve Foundation plans to provide services similar to those offered at Bethany Hall, a center for pregnant and parenting women that shuttered two years ago.

Restoration Housing bought the ca. 1920 home in January thanks to a $400,000 grant from Aetna Better Health of Virginia.

The home, which will be called the Grove on Patterson, will house about 16 women and 16 infants, who stay an average of six months, typically spanning times of pregnancy and up to three months postpartum.

“It's really symbolic of the women that will be in this building, and how we hope and intend for them to feel supported and supportive of each other and to have it feel like a community,” Isabel Thornton, executive director of Restoration Housing, said of the facility’s name during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We wanted to bring these services here because there's such a stigma to substance use disorder, and a byproduct of that is shame, and a byproduct of that shame is that women don't seek help.”

Anderson Treatment and Carilion Clinic will also provide care at the group home.

Kimberly P. Simcox, a doctor with Carilion, said in a press release that research shows such facilities “play a vital role in breaking the intergenerational cycle of addiction, as children raised in a healthy and supportive environment are less likely to develop substance use issues themselves.”

Correction (8/14/24) — A previous version of a Rambling about a mayoral write-in candidate misstated the timeframe of when Merrie Turner lived in The Hotel Roanoke. The story has been updated. We regret the error.