Students urge flexible approach to countywide cell‑phone policy; parents raise Chromebook instruction and misuse concerns

A student leader from Enloe High School asked the Wake County Board of Education’s policy committee to avoid a single, uniform countywide cell phone rule and instead offer districtwide guidelines schools could adapt for elementary, middle and high school contexts.

Mahivir Machinini, a freshman and member of Enloe’s PTSA Student Leaders, told the board that differences across schools and age groups make a one‑size‑fits‑all policy difficult to implement. “Elementary, middle and high school students have very different reasons to use their phones,” Machinini said, and schools should be able to account for building layouts and age‑specific needs. He recommended “a set of guidelines for all schools to base their cell phone policy off of, which would allow for all ages and their educational personal needs in the school setting to be taken account for without ambiguity.”

Machinini also suggested that teaching responsible phone use in schools would better prepare students for adult life than a blanket ban.

Separately, a parent speaker said her children’s classrooms have shifted toward slide‑based, screen‑led work delivered on Chromebooks and reported that students sometimes use devices to chat during class. Brooke Wicks, a parent of three Wake County students, said teachers and counselors she met with privately shared concern about the shift away from teacher‑led instruction and that her child’s school was investigating sustained chat activity across class periods. The parent asked the board and staff to investigate Chromebook use and monitor classroom practices.

Board members noted existing legislative proposals related to student wireless device rules and said the district will continue its policy‑development process. The meeting included a reminder that any board policy would still require school‑level implementation plans; no final district policy was adopted at the meeting.