Classroom Conversations: 8News viewers discuss controversial back to school topics

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Between bullying, staff shortages and even the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, concerns among teachers and parents can be overwhelming. 8News sat down with those presently or formerly involved in local school systems to talk about what it looks like to be involved in a child’s education.

The panel was composed of an assistant principal, a teacher, a retired teacher, a retired school psychologist and a parent.

(From left to right: Martha Hicks, Assistant Principal; David Hillgrove, retired teacher; L. Frances Brown, retired school psychologist; Ivy Dowdy, teacher; Crystal Varner Parker, parent)

Classroom Behavior

The conversation began on the topic of classroom behavior.

“I think when it comes to classroom behavior, all of it comes down to parents needing to be part of the solution and not vilifying teachers and seeing them as the enemy, but a partner in their child’s education,” said Crystal Varner Parker, a Henrico parent of rising 3rd and 6th grade students.

Parker went on to say she’s never met a teacher who says things negatively while hoping to harm a student.

Parker also pointed to lack of communication skills due to overuse of devices. She said it’s a parental responsibility to help children maneuver technology and conversations.

Ivy Dowdy, a current special education teacher in Chesterfield, said a strong administrative team is needed to trickle down into the classroom. Dowdy also said she feels fortunate to have both a strong administrative team and supportive parents at her school.

Dowdy said she establishes strong relationships with students from the beginning, which helps her gauge which students are up for learning and which are not.

“Oftentimes, the behavior that we see in the classrooms is just a reflection of what is going on for children in maybe their families or some community issues,” said L. Frances Brown, a retired school psychologist and regional representative for the Virginia Academy of School Psychologists.

Brown agrees that administrators and parents are needed to provide support.

“Just like every parent wants the best for their child, every teacher wants the best for their students, every child wants the best for themselves,” Brown said.

Equity in resources

After panelists touched on resources that may be needed to help some students, the conversation shifted to equity in resources and gaps some districts may be experiencing.

“I think it’s a real reality that schools are understaffed and underresourced,” Parker said.

Parker emphasized the need for parents and community members to step in and fill the gaps. She brought up the example of her mother in law reading to local elementary school students weekly, despite not having children at that school.

“One resource that we’re lacking is our ability to communicate with Spanish-speaking students,” Dowdy said. “I really think it would benefit all if they would offer continuing education classes in Spanish.”

For Dowdy, being able to communicate in Spanish would allow her to relate to her students more.

David Hillgrove, a retired social studies teacher and technology aide who taught in several school districts in the Richmond-area, suggested parents may be viewing equity in resources similar to their own school experiences, however, present day is a “totally different world.”

“We didn’t worry about the things these kids are worried about now,” Hillgrove said. “Perhaps that’s the resource that is missing, is the perspective from parents and people who are not in education who consider themselves to be experts in everything about it.”

“I’d like to see every legislator in the general assembly ride a school bus five times a year without a tie and a nametag. Just get on the bus and act like you’re a parent,” Hillgrove said.

Martha Hicks, Northumberland High School’s assistant principal and 50-year career educator, added onto the idea that school issues have evolved, and brought the conversation back to cell phones.

“The cell phones have made the biggest difference with students. That’s their social life,” Hicks said. “Texting at home to students, cyberbullying. It’s a big thing.”

Hicks said it’s critical for parents to have conversations with their students about the dangers of cell phones. She also said parents who do not uphold the school’s cell phone policy for their own students create disciplinary confusion.

Hicks said a cell phone policy was put in place at Northumberland High School prior to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s bell-to-bell cell phone ban. Despite a few violations, Hicks said students followed the rules.

Both Hicks and Parker agreed that there has to be an agreed community solution.

Parker disagreed with parents who feel the need to get in touch with their child during school hours.

“There is nothing that big of an emergency that you need to text or call your kid in the middle of the day. The school has a phone. If you need to get in touch with your child, it is no different than when we were in school,” Parker said.

Parker said it’s up to parents to agree to not give their children cell phones at a young age. She said a large amount of bullying gets tied back to social media.

Brown brought up an alternate perspective when it comes to family dynamics and cell phones.

“Maybe I need to make sure that my child knows that I’m okay or I know that my child is okay,” Brown said. “Family dynamics as it relates to getting calls at school or use of cell phones, I think that’s, kind of, some issues that maybe they need to talk about. But also, I think parents need support.”

Brown touted parent centers in some school districts that allow parents to openly discuss household issues.

“It’s very difficult to try to navigate work, your family finances, making sure your child has done their homework, they’re eating a protein, a starch and a vegetable,” Brown said.

Parker agreed with parenting being difficult and needing support.

“I need them [children] to be prepared for the real world but I also need them not to be addicted to technology. Where’s the line? But also, how am I teaching all of these social skills? What do these words that they’re coming home and saying mean?” Parker said.

Hillgrove advised parents to force children to charge cell phones in a public area in the home every night.

Cell phones

Although Hicks brought up only having a few issues implementing the cell phone ban, Dowdy shared a different experience.

“I believe that there’s too much leeway given to the principals to do what they want to do as far as cell phone usage is concerned in the schools,” Dowdy said. “You can probably go in any county and each building is doing something differently.”

Dowdy said Gov. Youngkin’s ban should be fully explained so classrooms and schools across the state can accurately follow the same set of rules.

“Cell phones in our schools are a huge distraction,” Dowdy said. “It’s where the bullying starts. It’s where the cheating starts. It’s where they look at videos all day instead of the lesson. They’re distracted by the phones.”

For teachers, having to compete against cell phone usage can be especially frustrating due to spending time preparing lessons and having to teach students to a certain degree in the time constraints of a school year.

“It’s just time that doesn’t need to be spent addressing cell phone usage,” Dowdy said.

“For every three kids that you catch, there’s 21 that got away with it. It’s like gum chewing in the 70’s,” Hillgrove said.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 53% of school leaders feel that their students’ academic performance has been negatively impacted by cell phone usage. That statistic may be demoralizing for teachers working against cell phones. The conversation then shifted to teacher retention in light of the constant cell phone battle.

Teacher Retention

When it comes to keeping teachers, Hicks said administrators are in the driver seat.

“If you have an administrator who is wishy washy, you’re going to have problems. You have to be fair, firm and consistent across the board,” Hicks said.

Hicks said her school district, Northumberland County, took the cell phone ban seriously. She went on to emphasize discipline starting with administrators and trickling into classrooms. She said when having to discipline students over cell phones, the excuse often ends up being related to needing to communicate with parents.

The district had already banned cell phones in the classroom prior to Gov. Youngkin’s order, making it an easier transition, according to Hicks.

“Our county doesn’t lose teachers. Very rare,” Hicks said.

Parker responded to Hicks by saying, “It sounds like your school system has fair, firm, consistent administrators and I think you need it in parents, too.”

“I want anybody in America to know, you got to love these kids in order to get things done,” Hicks said.

“That definitely speaks to the power of an administrator,” Brown said. “The administrator sets the tone for the school.”

Brown said administrators not only set expectations for teachers but also for support staff and students.

Dowdy turned the attention to support staff and other adults in schools who may not address behavior, specifically regarding cell phones.

Parker said students will take rules seriously when they realize discipline is the same among all adults.

“Kids love discipline. They don’t like it today but when they come back and visit you, they’re glad you made them toe the line and they’ll fall in line” Hillgrove said.

“They rise to the occasion with the expectations,” Brown said.

“They need consistency in their expectations from classroom to classroom to classroom,” Dowdy said, “That’s something that we’re trying to achieve right now.”

Dowdy mentioned that her school has an underserved population with substitutes filling many roles temporarily, which contributes to inconsistencies throughout the building.

Parker added that if schools are consistent across the district rather than just throughout one building, substitutes can better understand expectations.

Vacancy rates vary across the board. According to the Virginia Department of Education, during the 2024-2025 school year, 0.8% of Hanover’s teacher positions were vacant. Compare that to Petersburg during the same year with a 37.1% teacher vacancy rate.

When asked what can be done to keep teachers in the classroom, Hillgrove immediately commented on the argument of pay raises.

“Money isn’t the answer,” Hillgrove said, “Who went into education thinking they were going to become a millionaire?”

Hillgrove said community support is needed to keep teachers, rather than more money.

Brown agreed, “we love the children. We want to provide a safe space for children. We want to provide the best enriching environment for children. Money is not the problem but teachers need to feel supported.”

She brought up solutions including community support, peer to peer support and professional development.

“A lot of times teachers across the board really avoid communicating with the parents sometimes,” Dowdy said.

Dowdy touted the importance of establishing parent-teacher relationships early into the school year.

“Parents who engage with the teacher or the administrator, it’s a reflection of how their own parents were treated in school,” Brown said.

Parker chimed in, agreeing with the importance of establishing a positive relationship early. She said most conflict stems from a lapse in communication. She expressed that she feels it’s important for parents who have the bandwidth to step in and help to do so.

“It takes a village to raise a child. I can’t do it by myself and I don’t think any of us can,” Parker said. “We’re going to get a whole lot more done if we work together for these kids.”

“You remember when you were in school, they always said it takes a village to raise a child,” Hicks said. “Now you don’t have that. You don’t have the extended families anymore. You got a lot of single parents who have to work.”

“You look at these colleges, people are not going into education anymore,” Hicks said, “The money stinks which doesn’t help. The hours are not long but frustrating. You don’t always have what you want. You don’t always have the material that you want and every school system is different.”

Hillgrove compared today’s teacher job market to when he started teaching in 1979. He said there were two positions available in the area and it was extremely competitive. The story is the complete opposite today.

Parker said when you compare a teacher salary to the price of college tuition, “it doesn’t make sense.”

Hicks said she begged her children to go into education and they refused.

Dowdy shared an experience of deciding to become a teacher later in her career. After working in management and corporate positions, she said she took a $10,000 pay cut when entering the classroom. Starting out, she said she was forced to work two jobs to make ends meet.

Dowdy said she went into teaching because she’s passionate about reading, writing and arithmetic. She believes students should be able to properly speak for themselves.

That topic then brought up the controversy surrounding standardized testing, because language is often not something required to be tested on.

Standardized Testing

Hillgrove encouraged people to “trust the teacher” rather than a test score.

The conversation shifted to the importance of learning a language early in life rather than waiting until high school or middle school for most Virginia students.

“I think learning a language early in life is very important, but we also have to respect that there is very little language equity as it relates to those who already know those languages and how those languages are respected in the workplace, how they’re respected even when you come to a school building,” Brown said.

“The heart of when [standardized tests] came in to be was to make sure that we’ve got equity in the classroom. That is everybody teaching the same thing or all the kids learning,” Parker said. “At the heart of it, not focusing exclusively on what those test scores mean. The metric keeps changing.”

Parker said standardized testing has become a business of who can provide the best deal for schools, which leads to states having different classroom expectations.

Brown said although the tests are standardized, there is no standard for the implementation of the standard because teachers present information differently from one another and students learn differently, as well.

“There’d be an end of standardized testing if you gave those same tests out three weeks after they were given and not tell anyone and see how little they [students] retain from the ten minutes before the test until three weeks later,” Hillgrove said.

Hillgrove went on to say it’s impossible to quantify a love for learning on a standardized test.

Artificial Intelligence

Looking to the future, so many are concerned about potential loss of critical thinking and reading comprehension due to the increased presence of artificial intelligence.

“I cannot imagine chasing down AI as a teacher,” Hillgrove said, “I just cannot imagine how you would tell the difference between little Johnny’s report and something he took four and a half minutes to punch a couple key strokes in.”

“You can tell,” Hicks said.

Brown said some AI programs are used as a tool by both teachers and students.

Parker related the conversation back to the use of cell phones saying, “I don’t want my kid to use it [AI]. I want you to develop those critical thinking skills. I want you to be able to grow in reading.”

“Something that needs to be taught in school is critical thinking skills,” Brown said.

Brown said AI can’t be avoided but it can be monitored for whether or not it’s being used for nefarious reasons.

“We need to get ahead of it or at least catch up to it,” Brown said.

“I’m not a strong advocate for AI in the classroom. I also believe students should be able to use their critical thinking skills. They should be able to read and write,” Dowdy said, “I don’t want any students responding with any words that they cannot explain to me.”

Dowdy said she would prefer to see AI relieve the teachers of some duties.

Hicks added that AI can be used for tutoring.

“I’m not foolish enough to believe technology isn’t going anywhere,” Parker said, “It is one of those that I believe fully in pen and paper.”

The full conversation can be viewed on WRIC+.