Henrico School Board pushes for ‘more consistency’ in enforcement of disciplinary code

The Henrico School Board will vote on a number of changes to the Henrico Schools' Code of Student Conduct June 6, including the addition of a self-defense clause and reducing the time student athletes can be suspended from their teams.

Other proposed changes, which the board discussed at a meeting April 18, include more guidance on how teachers should handle artificial intelligence and removing a restriction from the dress code that banned “cut-off jeans” and “ripped clothing.”

Current cell phone policies, which ban students from using cell phones during class time unless authorized by the teacher but do allow students to bring phones to school, remain unchanged in the disciplinary code suggested for the 2024-2025 school year.

However, school board members pointed out that the code of conduct is often not consistently enforced at all schools across the division, with some schools enforcing the code or parts of the code more harshly while other schools take a more lax approach. A 2022-2023 community survey conducted by Henrico Schools found that only 61% of school staff agreed that the rules for behavior are applied consistently.

“While it is a majority, that is concerning that only 61% think that rules are being consistently applied,” said Three Chopt District representative Madison Irving. “I think that’s not ideal and makes the work environment tougher as a teacher, where you think, ‘Well, even if I enforce this and I’m not backed up, then I’m completely undermined.’”

The HCPS survey also found that almost 90% of students and families said that their school had talked to students about what the consequences would be if they violated the code. However, HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell said that the school division could do more to make sure all students are aware of the updated code and that all staff are consistently enforcing consequences.

“I do think this speaks to what we are all identifying as this underlying challenge that I need to work with the team to really dig in and solve, and that’s making sure students first and foremost understand what the rules and expectations are,” Cashwell said. “And then around the expectations for enforcing those with administrators, school to school, I’m looking for that consistency. I think we have a lot of work to do there.”

HCPS Director of Disciplinary Review William Noel Sr. said that he conducts “positive school climate outreach” training at the beginning of each school year with all school administrators, who will then go over the code with their building staff and hold assemblies for students on behavioral expectations.

Cell phone debate

While no changes have been proposed to the code regarding cell phone policies, Noel said that he will emphasize the need for administrators to enforce all parts of the current phone policy.

“[Cell phones have] been a hot topic of conversation with various groups of HCPS stakeholders,” Noel said. “Because of the attention that’s been given to it, it will absolutely be stressed at the positive school climate outreach.”

The current policy allows K-12 students to have phones on them in the classroom as long as they are “out of visible sight, silenced, or in airplane mode.”

However, several board members want HCPS to consider adopting stricter phone policies. Irving asked the board to weigh the option of a total cell phone ban, which would restrict students from bringing their phones into the classroom or into the school building.

“Study after study shows the positive effects of phone bans,” he said. “Places that have banned phones fully in terms of not giving the kids access to phones have seen a reduction in fights, a reduction in skipping, a reduction of drug deals in bathrooms. . . I think it would just be very positive for our communities and for our schools.”

Several Virginia school districts have implemented cell phone bans, including six Richmond City schools that now require students to place their phones in a locked pouch at the beginning of the day. Other divisions have required students to place their phones in a pouch at the beginning of each class.

School board chair and Varina District representative Alicia Atkins recommended that HCPS separate elementary cell phone policies from middle school policies, as the current code has the same rules for both, and explore the idea of a total ban when it comes to elementary schools.

“I’ll be very clear, I think that a ban of no cell phones from children in the building at the elementary age should be accepted, period,” she said. “Having a kindergartner in a class with a cell phone just doesn’t make sense. So they just shouldn’t be admitted into the building, or perhaps use pouches.”

Brookland District representative Kristi Kinsella, however, was more hesitant to implement stricter phone policies, saying that HCPS should not take on the role of “phone police” and instead allow students to learn “self-regulation.”

Other changes to the technology and academic honesty sections would edit the definition of plagiarism to include  “the characterization of content generated by generative artificial intelligence as one’s own original work.”

Equitable enforcement still a challenge

Along with cell phone policies, board members also said they felt that the dress code was not consistently enforced across all schools. Ryan Young, who represents the Fairfield District, said he still sees students wearing pajamas and cropped shirts exposing midriffs daily, despite code restrictions.

Noel said that some schools may be taking a “lax” approach to enforcing the dress code compared to other schools, and said that this upcoming school year, schools should focus on being “consistent across the board” and enforcing the dress code “as it is written.”

Cashwell also noted that some schools have even distributed older versions of the dress code by mistake. Over the past few years, HCPS has edited much of its dress code and removed “cultural or gender-specific language” and “subjective language” after students and families complained that the dress code was targeting certain demographics.

This year, the board will vote on striking a line in the dress code that bans “cut-off jeans, cut-off sweatpants, or torn, ripped, or slashed clothing that reveals undergarments or body parts excluded by other parts of this code.” However, other parts of the current dress code will ensure that students will still not be allowed to dress inappropriately, Kinsella said.

“It’s recommended because, as we’ve heard from students before, if you’ve shopped recently, you see quite a bit of fashion that perhaps could be cut-off jeans, cut-off sweatpants,” she said. “Do we want our administrators being a dress code police?”

New changes to the Student Activities Contract also would lessen some of the penalties enforced on student athletes and other students involved in extracurricular activities when it comes to alcohol or drug possession.

The changes apply to any student involved in Virginia High School League activities, which include sports teams, debate teams, and chorus and band. Rather than face activity suspensions of 30 days to a year, students would now face suspensions from activities from 15-60 days.

“The changes to the Student Activities Contract, I think that’s remarkably well done,” Irving said. “The previous one was overly punitive.”

Noel emphasized that students violating the SAC would still receive the same punishments as any other student when it came to the code of conduct, which could include in-school or out-of-school suspensions. He noted that HCPS only has jurisdiction to punish students if they are in school or at a school-sponsored activity such as a team practice.

Another change to the code would add a definition for self-defense, which would allow administrators to consider self-defense as a factor when determining punishment as long as the student’s claim met all the requirements of the definition.

“Any person claiming self-defense must: be without fault in provoking or bringing on the fight or incident; have reasonably feared, under the circumstances as they existed at the time, that there was an imminent risk of physical harm; and have used no more force than was reasonably necessary to prevent the threatened,” the proposed code reads.

HCPS leaders said the addition was recommended because of instances in which parents claimed during disciplinary hearings that their child was acting in self-defense when administrators did not see the students’ actions as fitting the definition of self-defense.

“Trying to give some universal language is the goal here,” said Henrico School Board Counsel Megan Watkins. “I don’t know that this definition is necessarily going to be used in a way other than to level the playing field in order to have that conversation.”

The main indicator of self-defense, Watkins said, would be determining whether the student had a “reasonably feared” threat to themselves, meaning that another student put in that situation would react the same way.

However, Atkins said that the notion of “reasonable fear” could apply differently to students with disabilities, who may act differently than most students in certain situations.

“If I am an individual that lacks the ability to verbally speak, my response might be different from a person hearing, even though the situation is the same,” Atkins said.

HCPS holds review hearings in cases where a student feels they are being unfairly punished due to their disability, Cashwell said, but officials will still consider possibly changing the wording of the definition.

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Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.