|
EDITORIAL: Policy on cell phone use at school effective
Oct 30, 2009 (The Daily News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Bowling Green High School has taken appropriate steps to cut down on students talking or text messaging on their cell phones during class or in the hallways.
The school is allowing students to brown bag their cell phones and MP3 players and use them during their 30-minute lunch period to offset the "need" to use them during class.
Principal Gary Fields and faculty came together to find this compromise for students whose phones were being taken for the day if they were caught sneaking a text from inside a backpack or pocket.
Fields says the number of referrals has been reduced by at least 75 percent since last school year because of the new lunchtime policy.
This percentage in decrease in referrals shows the program is having much success and at the same time gives the students some freedom to use their cell phones during their leisure time.
Now, on any given day at the school, students can be seen talking or sending texts on their cell phones, which allows them to talk to their parents about after-school plans or to simply check their e-mails.
There was also concern when the idea was proposed that students eating lunch would send texts to other students still in class. But Fields says so far that this hasn't been a problem and it appears that students receiving texts are waiting until their lunch period to check their phones. There was also concern when the proposal was discussed about cheating, but Fields said that hasn't been a problem either.
It's encouraging that these possible problems haven't materialized and that is certainly a credit to the students.
It is also encouraging that the new policy has reduced the number of excuses students can use when they are caught using an electronic device outside of lunch.
This proposal is a win-win situation for everyone. Students aren't using their phones in classes and at the same time they are being allotted time during their lunch breaks to use them.
Bowling Green High School deserves credit for the flexibility and creativity with which they addressed this problem.
To see more of the Bowling Green Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to http://www.bgdailynews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Daily News, Bowling
Green, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints,
email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send
a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee
Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
