Incident at VHS prompts review of cell phone policy

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 6, 2026

A cellphone left recording in a restroom stall at Vashon High School has prompted a re-examination of district policy: whether students should be allowed to keep phones with them during the school day.

The Vashon Island School District board of directors took up the high school’s cellphone policy at its April 23 meeting, days after district leaders notified families of what they called a “serious breach of privacy” at the school.

The district’s current policy dates to 2011, when smartphones had not yet become a near-constant presence in the lives of teenagers. Under the policy, students are expected to keep phones “off and away” during class, though devices may be used outside instructional time under school rules.

In practice, phones are often under desks, buzzing in pockets or present throughout the school day.

Interim Superintendent Jo Moccia said a change to the policy is “likely” but would not take effect until at least fall 2026. Before then, she said, the district needs to hear from students, families and staff — and build enough community understanding for any new rule to work.

“People understand rules when they make sense,” Moccia said in an interview after the meeting. “You can put a rule in place, but if people don’t understand what it’s about or don’t have buy-in, then all you have is this idea that we have to enforce the rule.”

The review comes as McMurray Middle School closes out its second year of an “away for the day” policy and as schools across Washington and the country are taking a harder look at student cellphone use, distraction, mental health and privacy.

But on Vashon, the discussion has taken on new urgency because of the high school restroom incident.

In an April 14 message to families, Vashon High School Principal John Erickson said two students found a phone that was left in a restroom, started a video recording and left the phone unattended above a stall. The phone recorded two other students without their knowledge or consent using the restroom before a third student found it and brought it to school administrators, Erickson wrote.

The King County Sheriff’s Office was contacted, and the video was turned over to law enforcement, according to district messages to families.

Moccia wrote that the students who started the recording were identified, were removed from school pending further investigation and would face “appropriate action pursuant to policy and procedure.”

“The families of the students who were recorded without their consent have been in close contact with our administrative team and counseling staff in order to respond to their concerns and to ensure their safety moving forward,” Erickson wrote. “Additionally, this incident has accelerated the review of district and VHS cell phone policy.”

Several parents, clearly troubled by the incident, attended the school board’s meeting on April 23. A few spoke out, urging the district to adopt a stricter policy.

“It’s time we are honest with ourselves about the many detriments caused by phones in school,” said Erin Simmons, a mother of four students on Vashon. “We need to choose to take action, even if it’s hard. It isn’t that often that we are in a position to make a real difference.”

Simmons urged the board to consider a “bell-to-bell” policy, in which students would put phones away for the full school day, not just during class.

“You can effect change that will help every student coming through the ranks on Vashon,” Simmons told the board. “You can give our high school students, our whole district, a school experience that allows them to take a deep breath as they walk in the door, set aside their phones and social media and learn, grow and care for each other.”

“That recording in the restroom,” she added, “that was not caring for each other.”

Another parent, Meghan Kaul, also urged the board to adopt a stricter policy.

“Nonconsensual photography is enough of a reason to ban phones already,” Kaul said. “How can anyone relax in a bathroom or classroom after the incident that just took place, knowing it could happen again at any moment? Who wants to go to school knowing they can be secretly photographed or recorded? This is not a learning environment.”

Kaul pointed to McMurray’s “away for the day” policy, saying her commuting family has had “zero issues” with students turning in phones during the school day.

Another parent, whose eighth grader will enter the high school next year, said she has seen the benefits of McMurray’s approach. “It’s not perfect, but it’s great,” she said.

“If kids are filming, which is so much a part of how they use phones now, I think it changes the school experience in a really negative way, and it inhibits the way kids are able to express themselves and be in a safe place,” she said. “Incident aside, I’m grateful that we’re having a conversation.”

Board members largely agreed the current policy deserves review. But several said any change must include students, families and staff, rather than coming only from the board.

“I feel very strongly that all members of the school community need to have the vigorous discussion that is put into it in order to make any policy,” Vice Chair Martha Woodard said. “I feel like it is our job to hear from the community.”

The mounting research on phones’ effects on learning and student mental health should also guide the district’s decision, board member River Branch said during the meeting.

“There’s research that suggests the sole presence of the cellphone reduces cognitive capacity, lowers scores, increases cheating, increases cyberbullying,” Branch said. “It’s radically connected to increases in depression and anxiety.”

For Lucia Armenta, another board member, the conversation should have happened sooner.

“I want to apologize for taking so long to have this conversation,” Armenta said. “This should have happened before, because it could have helped students in our district to not have this horrible incident. So I hope that we can quickly move into this policy, review it and decide.”

The incident at the high school may have forced the issue to the surface, Board Chair Juniper Rogneby said, but concerns about student phone use were already “percolating in the background.”

“It’s a worthwhile endeavor and we have to endeavor to get it right,” Rogneby said. “Getting it right means doing some pretty deep listening.”

Rogneby said the district should learn from McMurray’s experience, including what has worked and where students may still be skirting the rules. She also said a stricter policy would affect the rhythm of the school day for everyone — students used to keeping phones close, parents used to being able to reach their children and teachers expected to enforce the rules.

Moccia, meanwhile, cautioned that a stronger rule alone will not be enough.

“The policy you have in place was violated and we dealt with that violation,” Moccia said of the restroom recording incident.

The current policy, specifically states that students may not use telecommunications devices in a manner that “violates the privacy rights of others” — and that students may not, while on school grounds, send, share, view or possess sexually explicit material on cell phones.

Moccia said any new policy would require a broader cultural shift inside the high school, where many students and families are accustomed to phones being present throughout the day.

“Part of that idea of getting a forum together, getting people in the same room, getting conversations to start is so that we’re not in an echo chamber,” Moccia said at the meeting. “We have to talk about these things. Help people shift culture. Understand that it is an issue of enforcement.”

In an interview after the meeting, Moccia said people inside the building — staff, students and teachers — need to understand the “who, what and why” behind any change.

“If we just look at how we make rules and why they’re important, kids, even if they don’t agree, there may be more compliance,” Moccia said.

She said the district may consider a modified version of McMurray’s approach. One possibility, she said, could be requiring students to place phones in classroom slots or holders at the start of class — a practice some high school teachers already use — rather than banning access entirely throughout the day.

That kind of approach, Moccia said, could still allow teachers to occasionally use phones as a classroom tool.

“For me, it’s not just the hard and fast of, ‘We’re not doing this,’ it’s the nuance of it,” Moccia said. “What’s the opinion of all the stakeholders that are actually engaged in it?”

McMurray’s policy, adopted in September 2024, requires students to turn in phones to their last-period teacher at the start of the day and retrieve them after the final bell.

Compliance has not been total, but Principal Greg Allison estimated last fall that about 75% of students were turning their phones in daily. Even among students who do not, phones are largely stored in backpacks or lockers.

In the fall, teachers at McMurray told The Beachcomber that students are more focused and more socially engaged. They said the policy has also reduced some of the social stress that came with students taking photos of one another or feeling pressure to respond immediately to messages during the school day.

Still, Moccia said, McMurray’s policy did not happen overnight — and maintaining it still takes daily work.

The local conversation is unfolding against a broader statewide and national reckoning over phones in schools. A Phone-Free Schools State Report Card released April 13 gave Washington an “F” for failing to pass a statewide bell-to-bell cellphone ban during the 2026 legislative session — one of only five states to receive that grade.

“We are behind,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal said in an April 9 TVW interview. “We don’t need studies to see how clear the research is. We need courage.”

Washington lawmakers did pass Senate Bill 5346 this year, but the law does not require a statewide ban. Instead, it directs the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to gather information on school cellphone policies and make recommendations to lawmakers, with a broader goal of helping districts develop policies tailored to their communities.

Vashon’s next step will be a community forum and workshop at 6 p.m. May 14 at the Vashon Island High School Great Hall, where students, families, staff and community members will be invited to weigh in on the district’s cellphone policy.

Moccia said the district has also sent a survey to high school students seeking their input.

“It takes a village,” she said. “We’ve got to bring the village together to say this is a priority, and if it’s a priority for this village then you need to help, too.”