MPS to Ban Cell Phones: Students Could Be Expelled; Adults in Fights Could Face Felonies

By Alan J. Borsuk, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jan. 17–Principals throughout Milwaukee Public Schools were ordered Tuesday to crack down on students carrying cell phones and similar electronic devices inside schools. Seeking to improve safety after a first semester marred by numerous violent incidents, Superintendent William Andrekopoulos told principals to come up with effective policies banning cell phones, with some exceptions, by Jan. 29, when the second semester starts. He also announced that students who use cell phones to summon outsiders to a school for reasons that threaten safety will be expelled from school. In addition, he said that Milwaukee County’s new district attorney, John Chisholm, has agreed to consider charging people involved in violence at schools with felonies. Generally, people involved in fighting have been given municipal disorderly conduct tickets, which Andrekopoulos said was too weak a punishment to be effective. Andrekopoulos, Chisholm and others are expected to announce the new policies at a news conference today at Bradley Tech High School, 700 S. 4th St., scene of at least two violent incidents this school year that involved students using cell phones to call people outside the building to get involved. One incident, last week, involved dozens of people in fights inside and outside the school, an episode Andrekopoulos described as “outrageous” and “spurred by calculated adult behavior.” MPS rules now bar students from using or carrying cell phones, pagers and any other two-way communication devices during the school day, but the rules are widely disregarded, particularly if students keep the gadgets off and out of sight during classes. Estimates of how many high school students carry cell phones in school start at about a third and go up to close to 100%. Even some students in elementary grades carry such devices. The use of cell phones in schools has been controversial nationwide. In New York City, a recent ban brought angry demands from parents and a lawsuit arguing that children be allowed to carry phones as a matter of safety or convenience. Many educators say phone use, particularly during classes, disrupts education. Stories of students text-messaging during class, using their hands and a phone out of sight of a teacher, are common among teachers. In addition, camera phones have been used in some places to help students cheat on tests and to take inappropriate photos in locker rooms and restrooms. Such concerns have led many school districts, including in Milwaukee suburbs, to ban use of cell phones and similar devices during school, although enforcement varies widely and, as in MPS, is often weak. To an unusually emotional Andrekopoulos on Tuesday, the issue was all about violence prevention. “The cell phone is becoming a safety issue,” he said. He listed incidents at nine MPS schools so far this school year that have involved adults, many of them parents of students and many of them responding to cell phone calls, who have attacked teachers, other staff members or non-employee adults. “This has to stop,” he said. “Enough is enough.” In an incident recently, he said a woman came onto the playground of Sherman School, 5110 W. Locust St., and injured three staff members with a baseball bat. He said eight teachers at the school called in sick the next day, saying they were too upset about the incident to work. Andrekopoulos said he wants administrators “to eliminate the use of cell phones — period.” In situations where students and parents have legitimate need to contact one another, he said, they could use phones in school offices. Policies may vary somewhat from school to school, but the memo to principals suggested steps such as taking away a phone for a first infraction and perhaps requiring a parent conference before it is returned, with suspensions or central office disciplinary hearings required for repeat offenders. A central office hearing could lead to assignment to a different school. He said he expected MPS safety aides to include cell phones in the items they screen for when checkpoints are set up on an occasional, unannounced basis at the start of school days. Andrekopoulos said exceptions to permit students to carry cell phones could be made in cases involving documented needs related to such things as medical, educational or vocational situations, but that he wanted those cases to be exceptions and not the rule. Posters in English and Spanish warning students not to carry cell phones are being distributed to schools. “Use them — and you could lose them,” the posters say. “If you use a communication device to endanger the safety or mental well-being of others, you could be expelled.” Andrekopoulos said he also would bring before a School Board committee next week a request that MPS lobby in the state Legislature to toughen laws related to crimes near schools. He said under existing law, drugs and firearms crimes within 1,000 feet of a school can carry double the penalties of such crimes elsewhere. He wants that broadened to include all crimes committed within 1,000 feet of schools. Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a private consulting firm based in Cleveland that has worked with schools across the country, praised the crackdown. He said that while parents often say they want students to carry cell phones for use in an emergency, the real reasons they have often relate to convenience and matters that are not urgent. He said that during actual emergencies, student possession of cell phones can interfere with proper responses, sometimes just by sending people flocking to schools, where they get in the way of authorities. He said, even given the large proportion of students who own cell phones, it is possible to ban them from schools. He added, “Just because the rules are difficult to enforce doesn’t mean we don’t have the rules.” Trump said that after the Columbine High School killings in Colorado in 1999 and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the pendulum swung toward allowing students to carry cell phones in school. Now, he said, it is swinging the other direction as people see the negative impacts of allowing such devices in school. What percentage of students carry cell phones? A student at Madison High School was asked that one day last spring as he checked his cell phone between classes. “Ninety percent,” he answered. He thought a few moments and changed his mind. “That’s too low,” he decided. Are cell phones allowed in school, a student at Bay View High School student was asked one day. No, she said. But you’re wearing one openly on your belt. “Oh,” she said, and pulled her sweater over the cell phone. Buy a link here

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Copyright (c) 2007, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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