Schools taking cell phones

Drew Ott

Drew Ott

Wish I were banned.
My high school's rule on cell phones, is that if they see one from 9:05 (start) to 4:10 (end), they will take it and will not return it until you give them $15. I'm interested in what everybody's opinions are on the legality of this. It seems like they could get kids in trouble and maybe punish them in some way, but charging $15 doesn't quite seem legal to me. I never use my cell phone so I've never had it taken, but I'd say 5-10 kids get their phones taken every day.

I'm thinking about setting up an interview with the principal of our school, ask permission to record it, and not tell her prior what I'm going to ask her about. I'll ask her where the money goes. Does it go to a school fund or does it pay for the teachers' lunch break? I will ask her if she thinks taking money as a punishment is fair, because for some people $15 is a lot of money, and others it is close to nothing.

To give an example on just how strict they are, I once overheard a girl complaining in the office about her phone getting taken. She was a senior so she could go off campus for lunch, and she was checking her voice mail as she was in the parking lot. She gave them the $15, but she only had $15 on her so she could not eat lunch that day.

Is this legal, or perfectly fine?
 
My school's policy is "Not seen, not heard, not taken away"

Well, my phone was "seen" twice in one week, so they gave me 16 hours of community service to do, or an in-school suspension. My parents thought that is was all a load of crap so they simply signed my community service form even though i didn't do any.

There is a very, very big grey area when it comes to school rules and the rights of kids...
 
Screw legal... taking a kids lunch money is immoral.

If phones are an issue they should send the bill to the students parents and see how that works out for them...
 
The principal will NEVER agree to an "interview" being taped without knowing what's going to be asked. Nor should she.
 
Other than an real emergency, cell phones have no place in school. I have a feeling that if the phones hadn't been abused, they wouldn't have had to institute the penalties.
 
Why the hell do you need a cell phone in class anyway? It doesn't help the purpose of why you're in school one bit. I totally support the ban on cell phones in schools.

I think Blaine hit the nail on the head. If you don't abuse it, you don't get punished for it, and when you get punished for it, be a man and admit you knowingly broke a rule.

And don't get into that "taking lunch money" BS, cause your introducing things that have nothing to do with this issue. The $15 is cheap, I'd charge more! YOU KNOWINGLY BROKE A RULE, HELLO!? It's not someone's lunch money, it's what you get for breaking a very sensible and much needed rule!

You want to be treated like an adult, act like one, be responsable!
 
Between the hours that you are on campus, the school is your legal guardian. That means they have the right to take your stuff anytime they feel like it.

People seriously REALLY need to learn cell phone etiquette. I am absolutely sick and tired of people who don't bother to control their cell phone. I work for a non-profit and every week at least I film a one-hour program with anyone from a journalist to an Ambassador to even a President of another country who comes in and speaks, and we remind people nicely to turn off their cell phone before the program begins and unfailingly, someone's cell phone ALWAYS goes off during the program.

It's ridiculous. I support taking cell phones from students when they're disruptive. Take 'em away and don't give 'em back. Put your cell phone on silent when it's important, learn it now or be one of THOSE GUYS when you get into the adult world.
 
BenB said:
And don't get into that "taking lunch money" BS, cause your introducing things that have nothing to do with this issue.
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Whether or not I agree with charging to get the phone back -- and I don't think I do -- saying that this instance is "taking someone's lunch money away" is BS.

The girl in question made a choice -- get her cell back right away, or eat lunch. She chose her cell over lunch. So, obviously, that was more important to her.
 
Didn't he say that the girl was in the parking lot when they took her cell phone away? I think that's a little overboard. I can understand if she was checking her mail in class on something but the parking lot.
 
Rules apply "on campus." I come from a long line of educators: school teachers, adminstrators, I taught, and it's shocking how much goes on that disrupts a class that parents don't care about. Things that happen on campus bleed into the classroom. There's no reason to have a cell phone at school, period.
 
Instead of making them pay to get their phones back, they should make them use one of these for the rest of the day:
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You know, whatever about whether people agree with the school policy or not, I think bballplaya is showing some initiative and guts here by standing up for what he believes in, even if it means going to the top and placing himself in the firing line. If there were more people like him, the world would be a better place.
 
You know, whatever about whether people agree with the school policy or not, I think bballplaya is showing some initiative and guts here by standing up for what he believes in, even if it means going to the top and placing himself in the firing line. If there were more people like him, the world would be a better place.
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Thanks.

I'm actually very against cell phones being overused in public. There is definitely a line that needs to be drawn somewhere. Some of the time cell phones are very disruptive in class and there should definitely be punishment. What I am against is the punishment. $15 is a lot for some people, and for others it is nothing. That is the main issue. I think they should give students saturday detentions. Time has the same value for everybody.

As for the girl in the parking lot, I think that was too far for the administrators; however, I guess they have to draw the line somewhere. If they said, "You can use your phone outside the building," kids would be stepping out a door between classes to talk on their phone. I guess I understand that rule.

What I'm mainly interested in is finding out where the money goes. That's the main thing I want to ask the principal. I'm interested to find out 1) Whether she thinks its fair to charge money for cell phones when it money is valued differently for different people and 2) where the money goes.

In researching this topic I found a school that has a harder policy on cell phones. If you get it taken, they will look at all of your pictures, texts, and voice mail trying to prevent "sex, violence and crime." This is definitely a violation of privacy rights.
 
As I learned in gov't class, when you're at school, you pretty much don't have any privacy rights at all. They can basically do whatever they want to "protect the learning environment."

To try to get the interview you could come right out and say it's about the cell phone rule, maybe to inform people or try to get them to obey it. They'd probably agree to that, then just include your questions as part of that.

Personally, I think that using phones in class should get the strict punishment, because that's just disrepectful and disruptive. But outside of class, (especially the parking lot,) I don't see the problem. A lot of people use them for legit reasons, like getting rides, etc
 
I agree that cell phones are disruptive and have no place on the school grounds at any time but the question that was asked is it legal. You have to check the local laws and the state laws that apply to property rights with minors. Wether at school or off capus some schools impose sanctions for bad behavior and impose penalties. Schools have certain rights that involve property but each jurisdiction have different laws that govern what can transpire when a minor is involved. When some schools kick kids out for having a small pocket knife or a pair of nail clippers $15.00 sounds much better than being expelled. I have always held my kids responsible for their actions but I have had to go head to head with school authorities over my kids civil rights being violated. We had a lady assistant principal that was vicious towards black girls and white boys. She violated so many kids rights she ended up being fired. All I can say is at your age there is nothing wrong to want to challange things that you feel are unjust. If you win your challange you feel great and if you can make a change in the schools position in a positive way many students could be affected. If you lose you could be labled a trouble maker but in youth its the time to determine when a good fight is worth it.

Good luck.
 
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Rules are rules. You don't want to pay the 15$? Then don't do it. It's as simple as that. Makes no sense as to why the school should be making money off of it, because people should just follow the rules, and thus nothing in the end should even be given to the school. You have full knowledge as to what will happen if you use your cell phone in school...

I use my cell phone to talk to my GF, but I mainly use it for my films, to contact actors or keep in touch with a crew. The only thing students have use for a cell phone is to talk to talk to friends or their gf/bf, especially through IM. They do this during class and it often dissrupts the class or keeps a students attention away from the lesson. I understand the harshness of the punishment.

The only reason students SHOULD have a cell phone is for emergencies or calling their parents for a ride or something along those lines. There's no other reason. But when you're at school you're always accessable by your parents. They just call the school instead of your cell phone, and the other way around. If you need to call for a ride, then use a payphone (I'm assuming your school has one?). 25 cents is beter than 15 dollars IMO.

As for the girl in the parking lot, they can't bend the rules for one girl "just because". The second they do that it becomes a slippery slope. Where will bending the rules end?

However, I'm with michael T. Fight the good fight. If you feel it's unjust fight it, do what you can. At your age it's a good thing. You're taking interest in laws and local issues and doing what you can. Be sure to mention that it's about the cell phone usage, but give them a more innnocent reason for it. Start off the interview as sublte and innocent, and then work in your questions.
 
I still might just ask to talk to her so that I can gather some information that I'm very curious about. I'm sure a lot of people at my school would find the interview interesting. I'll post it if I go through with it.
 
yea and most students will go into saying that they need it for emergencies. And then you look over at the same student and they are text messaging their friends
 
I don't mind cell phones on campus, I think just about any student has one, and that's fine with me - I know 10 year old kids with phones and all that. It's just a tool, the important thing is how you use it. I graduated before cell phones came out, but I had a pager and I probably would have had a phone if I was in school then.

Parents like having that near-instant communication with their kids if the need arises, and I'd rather have kids texting each other over lunch than passing notes in class. The phone itself isn't the problem, it's people using them in a distractive manner.
 
mrWr0ng said:
Parents like having that near-instant communication with their kids if the need arises, and I'd rather have kids texting each other over lunch than passing notes in class. The phone itself isn't the problem, it's people using them in a distractive manner.
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Well of course the cell phone itself is not the problem, but kids use their cell phones in class to pass notes rather than actually physically passing the notes. There lies the problem. Plus cell phones going off in class, but mainly it's the text messaging.

As long as a student is in school there's always a way of reaching them via the school if an emergency arises. If you need a ride there should be pay phones available. At all the schools I've been too there have been pay phones.

Therefore there's no real need for a cell phone in school...
 
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