School cell phone policy may change

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

WCHS senior Kristen Sharpe, along with other students, may soon be able to use her cell phone to stay in contact during after-school activities. (Margaret Hobbs photo)

Warren County High School has officially banned the use of communication devices, such as cell phones and pagers, on school grounds since the mid-1990s, but if a new policy is approved by the school board, students will be allowed to have cell phones stored in their cars for use during after-school activities — provided they aren’t retrieved until after school hours.

Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale explained the reason for the change.

“One of the board members had asked that it be changed to where students could use it after school, as long as it was not disruptive,” Hale said. “The rationale being that, say, several members of the band might get back late and not have access to a phone to call their parents, and if they had a cell phone they could call. So that was the impetus to look at the policy.”

As it stands now, cell phones and pagers are banned from school grounds, even if left in student’s vehicles.

“Legally, right now, they can’t have them in their cars,” Hale said. “But as long as they’re not found, they haven’t done anything with that. But this policy would allow them to have them in their cars, as long as they’re not on their person.”

The new policy passed on first reading at the latest school board meeting, but won’t become permanent policy until it passes second read in April. Hale said the new policy would probably go into effect at that time.

The banning of communication devices on school grounds was due to the various problems they presented.

“All of this comes out of the School Security Act,” Hale said. “Back when the state passed measures trying to make it harder for certain elements of the society to contact students and get into the schools.”

Though the bans were originally designed to cut back on possible drug activity, which was universally supported by school officials, some have pointed out that other problems in schools, such as the proliferation in school shootings and violence, might be reason for a change in policies on the devices, since it might be important for students to be able to communicate with authorities in those situations. But Hale feels that isn’t really the case.

“First of all, there needs to be a focal point of communication,” Hale said. “If you have a crisis, then you can’t have every kid calling every person around. You know the chaos that results from that. We already saw that with the fumes. And the second part of that is, like I said, this came from the School Security Act so we know cell phones could be used for other purposes, rather than just emergencies for communication.”

The use of the devices was officially banned locally around 1995.

“Pagers are specifically prohibited by state law,” Hale added, due, in part, to their use by drug dealers in some areas.

Another area of concern is the proliferation of text messaging and camera-equipped cell phones. Apparently some students were using the devices to actually photograph tests.

“Not only that,” said Hale, “but they text-message the test out and then the answers would be text-messaged back. So yes, that has happened. I don’t know that it’s happened here, but there have been instances where they’ve caught students in other schools actually using cell phones to cheat on tests.”

The ban on communication devices on school grounds during school hours still stands and will continue to stand, according to Hale.

“The only thing that was changed was after-school activities,” Hale said.