Cell phones disrupt school

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - The Mat-Su Borough School Board is considering a change to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook that would limit cell phones in schools for emergency purposes only.

With the capacity to use cell phones to text-message test answers, photograph fellow students, call in bomb threats and disrupt classroom instruction, the Mat-Su Borough School District has recommended a districtwide policy that would require students to store the phones in their lockers during school hours.

At a school board meeting earlier this month, Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle told the school board that cell phones present challenges for Valley educators who are trying to cultivate a learning environment.

"When cell phones are going off in a classroom, in an instructional setting, it's extremely disruptive," he said at the Feb. 2 meeting.

Along with dress codes and attendance, Doyle said cell phones were a major part of the discussions in updating the student handbook. After gathering feedback from parents and the community, Doyle said it seemed as if parents wanted their children to have cell phones for safety reasons.

"I would make a note of the fact, though, that we have had cell phones used to call in bomb threats in this school district in the last year, so I think there needs to be reasonable restrictions on the use of cell phones in the schools," he said.

Many Valley schools already have their own schoolwide policy restricting cell phone use to before and after school hours, but the student handbook update would standardize cellular phone usage throughout the borough.

Only 10 years ago, cell phones were still considered a technological luxury item by many but are far more common now and continue to be one of the most popular and fastest growing forms of communication in the world, with some industry analysts predicting the global mobile phone market to grow to 2 billion subscribers by the end of 2005.

Along with voice and text messaging, more and more phones now have digital photographic and video capabilities, which present new challenges for school teachers and administrators.

School Board Member Sarah Welton sat on the committee that reviewed the student handbook and she said Mat-Su Schools are following national trends regarding cell-phone use in schools.

"It used to be that you couldn't have pagers or cell phones in schools because to have them in schools was considered to be a part of drug paraphernalia, gang-related things and possible sale and distribution of drugs," she said. "Now cell phones have become more common and parents have requested that their children be able to call home, so we've had to take a look at that."

While nationally, more and more school districts have allowed cell phones into their schools for safety reasons and convenience, the National School Safety and Security Services does not recommend it. NSSSS is a private independent Ohio-based national consulting firm, which specializes in school security and safety consulting.

In a report titled "School Safety: Cell Phones, Camera Phones, & Pagers," NSSSS advises school boards not to allow parental pressure and community politics to dictate cell-phone use in schools.

"From an educational perspective, cell phones present another disruption to the educational environment on a day-to-day basis," the report stated. "Ringing cell phones can disrupt classes and distract students who should be paying attention to their lessons at hand. Text message has been used for cheating. And new cell phones with cameras could be used to take photos of exams, take pictures of students changing clothes in gym lockers and so on."

NSSSS does recommend cell phones for school administrators and crisis team members but they cautioned that hundreds of students rushing to use cell phones in an emergency could overload cellular systems and conceivably decrease school safety during a crisis.

A survey conducted by the National Association of School Resource Officers also revealed that cell-phone use in schools may not be as widely accepted as commonly believed.

NASRO is a nonprofit training association that represents more than 9,000 police officers assigned to K-12 schools.

Out of 658 officers surveyed in 2002, 68 percent said they believe student cell-phone use in schools would detract from safety during a crisis.

Another 81 percent of officers indicated that their schools do not allow students to use cell phones in school.

Colony High School Principal Cydney Duffin said her school has a policy requiring cell phones to be turned off and put away during class time. Cell-phone abuse is not widespread at Colony but Duffin is aware of instances in which phones rang during class time and interrupted instruction.

Despite the challenges, Duffin said she believes cell phones do have legitimate use in schools.

"Students and parents want to be in contact with one another," she said. "From a safety standpoint, I see that need, but they do have voice and text-message capability, so students can leave them in lockers and check to see if a message came from mom."

In extreme emergencies, Duffin said parents could always call the school office as well.

Houston High School Principal Phil Milton said his school instituted a school policy this year, prohibiting student cell-phone use during school hours, and so far they haven't had many problems.

"After school or before, we don't say anything about it," he said. "It's not a huge problem, but if it's let go it can be cause for concern."

The Mat-Su Borough School Board is continuing to review the proposed changes to the student handbook. In March, members of the Student Advisory Committee will review the proposals and provide their own recommendations at the following school board meeting.

School board meetings take place at 6 p.m., every other Wednesday. The next meeting is scheduled for March 2.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.