Cellphones in school a tool for teaching and troublemaking

By Tyanna Dickerson

Claire McKitrick, a senior at South High School in Minneapolis, was standing in the hallway just checking the time on her cellphone last fall when her coach snatched it out of her hand with no warning.

Claire was “Bagged and Tagged.”

Bag and Tag is the name students gave to the Minneapolis school’s new policy that prohibits any cellphone use in school. Your phone can be taken away if it’s seen or heard. “If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind,” said South Principal Cecilia Saddler.

There are no second chances. Your phone is labeled and placed in a bag, and set aside for your parents to pick up. “It sucked, because my mom didn’t have to go get it immediately, she could go get it whenever she felt like it,” Claire said.

Last year’s policy didn’t allow students to use cellphones either, but the student was able to pick up the phone. And it wasn’t strictly enforced. This year’s policy isn’t strictly enforced either.

“I mean we were never really allowed to have cellphones in school in the first place, but at the same time, if we did, we never really suffered any consequences,” Claire said. “But now they can’t even be heard without getting them taken away.”

The reason why schools fight the presence of cellphones in class is because they spread trouble much faster than in the days before that technology became attached to every teen’s fingertips, said Nan Miller, the director of policy development for Minneapolis Public Schools.

The ability to spread rumors and arrange fights can happen by text in the blink of an eye. Being able to take and send pictures through phones makes it too easy for students to cheat on tests. Students can take a photo in second period and send it to friends taking the test later in the day.

The only thing that’s come close to having the same potential to cause problems and distraction in school were “Slambooks,” Miller said. “Slambooks” were notebooks in which students wrote rumors about other students and passed around school.

“Technology makes bad behavior expand, and we haven’t figured out a way to contain it,” Miller said.
What may surprise Minneapolis teens is there has been a district-wide policy since 2003 that makes the “Bag and Tag” policy at South look pretty sweet.

According to the Minneapolis district policy, no cellphones are allowed within Minneapolis schools during class time at all.

Before 2003, individual schools were able to create their own policies for dealing with cellphones, but back then, less students had cellphones. Even with a district-wide policy, schools in Minneapolis differ on how to keep cellphones from disrupting learning in school.

Southwest High School has what’s called a responsible-use policy. Students are allowed to use their cellphone at appropriate times – passing time and lunch.

If it’s used during any other time, students face three levels of punishment. For a first-time offense, the phone is taken away until the end of the day. On the second, a parent must come and pick it up. On the third offense, administrators confiscate the phone until the end of the grading period.

But in all honesty, could the schools ever be able to get rid of cellphones completely?

Miller said the school board is discussing changing to a responsible-use policy for the whole district, instead of banning phones from school property.

Even though cellphones have the power to cause serious problems, there are positives mobile devices can bring to learning as well.

They provide a quick and efficient way for students and teachers to communicate, Miller said, but also serve as a good learning resource. Today’s phones aren’t just talking devices, they can also download applications of a digital version of things like Netter’s Anatomy flash cards, or help you study SAT vocabulary words.

In 2008, South started using iPhones for some of its English courses; instead of using your old typical paperback, students can listen to audio books online.

“There is an increased interest in using personal cellphones for educational purposes, as well as district owned hand-held electronic devices, by both students and teachers,” Miller said.

“Preparing students for post-secondary choices – college, post-secondary education, the job market – supports the idea that we (prepare) students to use these tools in a safe and productive way,” Miller said.