The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
A proposal that would allow middle school students to carry but not use cell phones in school spurred praise and criticism at a School Board meeting Tuesday night.
"This policy recognizes the way technology is used in the family," said board member Bill Brunke, who has daughters in sixth grade and ninth grade.
The changes would extend the division's high school policy to lower grades, allowing students to carry the phones for use before and after school. Phones have to be concealed and off during the school day.
The phones are now banned in middle schools.
"They all have them. That's why we want to change it," said Mardy Massey, assistant superintendent for middle schools.
"I'm concerned about a policy that's driven by parents breaking the rule," board member Pat Edmonson said.
Board member Sandra Smith-Jones questioned whether middle school students really need to have cell phones at all.
Carolyn Weems, a board member with five children, including a middle school student, said she has worried about her daughter's safety after late activity bus runs. Middle schoolers are "staying after school for sports and being dropped off 1-1/2 miles from their homes in January in the dark," she said.
Dominic Melito, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association and a former Kellam High School teacher, said teachers' voices need to be heard on the issue.
"If the middle schools aren't having a problem with cell phones, this does open Pandora's box," he said.
The repercussions for violations by middle school students would be slightly less severe than in high schools. Elementary students still would be banned from using or carrying cell phones. The policy change also would specify that students who carry cell phones in school are consenting to searches of the phone's contents when reasonable suspicion exists.
The board plans to vote on the proposal June 2.
The board also heard Tuesday about changes that will help fill half-empty bus runs for high school academy programs this fall. The school division plans to ask academy parents this spring whether their children will take the bus in September. In the past, bus routes have been planned under the assumption that all students need the bus.
Also, more bus stops will be placed up to 1-1/2 miles from students' homes. Activity bus routes will vary based on demand and schedules will be posted for added convenience, said David Pace, director of transportation.
The changes could save $127,000 to $254,000 next year, depending on how many bus routes can be eliminated, Pace said.
Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
Gone are the days when
Gone are the days when students marched in lock step to the drum beats of their teachers. Today's students think for themselves and demand to have an equal voice in the rules that affect them. Today's young people are democratically minded and will not tolerate anyone stepping on their human rights, just as I imagine most of you would not.
brassinstructor
Lazy parents huh? You and people like you are the reason it is quite necessary to arm our children with the ability to "call some one who cares." Properly disciplined children are not a distraction in class with or with out a cell phone.
Tired of lowering expectations
Vbeach: I was not talking to you.
I did not walk uphill, walk two miles, or do either in the snow. I am thirty years old and was a student at the very beginning of this technical revolution. I am frustrated at students, on a daily basis, abusing cell phone usage and teachers turning the other cheek. There is no reason for someone in elementary school to even consider having a cell phone. It is also not necessary for middle school students to have cell phones during the school day. They are nothing but a distraction. If you disagree, ask any middle school teacher or administrator. I am sure the number disagreeing with this policy will be in the 90th percentile, where the city wishes its SOL numbers were for these distracted kids. I WILL ALSO CAPITALIZE ANYTHING I WISH TO PROVE A POINT OR EMPHASIZE A PHRASE. I am speaking in narrative, therefore it is accepted. Please refer to your MLA manual.
This is a problem with lazy parents not planning ahead. That, unfortunately, is a whole other news story.
Stuck in the Mud?
Brassinstructor:
1. "4th" should be spelled out.
2. Do not capitalize common nouns in the middle of a sentence.
3. I do not "claim" to be a teacher. Long before I became a licensed educator (graduating with honors), I possessed the reputation as a popular scuba instructor, surf instructor, Sunday school teacher, mentor to teenagers in prisons and alternative schools, and, oh yes, a published author. My children are Dean's list graduates (4.0).
4. Yea, you walked uphill both ways in the snow, too. Try surviving college today without a wireless laptop - in class. Did you have one? Me neither. Elementary students today are producing English reports with video editing programs, using footage recorded with a cell phone. The world is changing. Change with it, or at least step aside and stay out of the way of progress.
Enough is enough
First of all, to those of you who claim you are teachers: you need to re-evaluate your use of grammar and sentence structuring. Your ability to form a complete sentence, and therefore a paragraph, is on a 4th grade level. This goes for most everyone else who posts on here. It is no wonder students today are behind the curve. They have teachers and parents who cannot read or write in the English language.
Second, I ask: What did YOU do in school, or 15 years ago even, when there were virtually NO cell phones integrated into society? If there was an emergency, the school staff dealt with it. If you needed a ride home after school, you either PLANNED AHEAD, or used the office to contact your parents. The "Instant Satisfaction" and "ME, ME, ME Self Centered Generation" attitude of today's parents and kids is rearing its ugly head. These professionals are paid to educate your children, and in most cases do the parent's job of preparing them to be young adults. Babysitting and cell phone monitoring is not in the job description. Shame on all of you!
whathe
I have several relatives who are teachers - including my wife - and I assure you they are not in it for "total control grip," whatever that is. They are teachers because they enjoy teaching children. Certainly not because they want to be cell phone monitors.
Social Resistance creates Social Change
Thank you, Lauren, for your balanced coverage.
Remember when girls could not wear pants and a boy's hair had to be cut around the ears? Today's norms exist because outdated rules changed when noncompliance forced the issue.
Yes, adapting to this change in a responsible manner is difficult and time consuming. As a teacher on the front lines, I can assure you it's exhausting, but over time, students are learning responsible use/nonuse. Can teachers be trusted to invent creative activities?
How about "the first ten students who text me the correct answer," or "the first student to find the correct answer via Goggle" as activities? With the rapid changes in technology, PDAs may become as much a part of education as laptops have become in college.
Parents will make their choice
and either give their children cells to take with them to school, or not. However, whether they follow the policy of the school division is up to parents to enforce. In Chesapeake, middle school students may not have their cells on their person or turned on while instruction is taking place. Still, today we had a classroom where students were getting ready to take SOLs and 18 students had to put their cells in their lockers, because they were carrying them! If administrators take them and inform parents of the infractions, the parents get angry at the administrators! Whatever has happened to "follow the rules"?
Kids are there to learn not
Kids are there to learn not to talk on their phone or worse yet text.
Spoken like a true control freak. Its great that the one's that need them have them just for emergencys right! Sounds like a company I worked for were as a worker you couldn't have a cell phone on your person just the management. Well the management was the problem and didn't won't you to call for help from there total control grip.
Uh, What The?
This isn't about a private company that someone formerly worked for, but the publicly operated educational system.
A true emergency situation can always be coordinated through the school administration, with no mobile or pay phone necessary. I seem to have made it through VB schools grades 1-12 without having to call my parents except for the very few times that I had a personal appointment, was physically sick or violated the rules.