A new school year has started and is in full-speed motion in the Tri-Town area. This year is different than last, however, because Old Rochester Regional High School’s cell phone policy – one that was more lenient than most other schools in the area – has changed. During the 2013-2014 school year, students were delighted to read that there was no specific rule against having your cell phone out all day and using it when you like. However, the 2104-2015 school handbook states that “Students may not use electronic devices in halls after 7:30 a.m. or before 2:03 p.m.”
This means that students are being restricted in their cell-phone privileges, which has sparked some controversy among the students.
Sophomore Joshua Garcia says that the policy changes were prompted by “students who abused their privileges. Some students used their phones when they shouldn’t have, and they simply ended up pushing their luck too far.”
The new rules are easy enough to understand, written in bullet-point format on pages 55 and 56 of the Student Handbook. Essentially, students are not allowed to charge, listen to music, or use electronic devices in the building during school hours (unless in the cafeteria during lunch or if a teacher gives permission to do otherwise.)
The question, though, is will the students comply? A lot of students feel that the new rules deprive them of their freedom to access the news, to contact their parents in case of an emergency, or something along those lines. The real truth of the matter is that the students who were using their phones to do those things were not the students that prompted the changes. People were abusing their privilege, and in order to prevent it from getting worse, the school nipped it in the bud.
One way teachers can be assured that the students will adhere to the new rule is by enforcing it.
“No one will really be happy about it, but, I mean, there’s nothing you can do about it,” says sophomore Lauren Valente. “I think for right now the teachers are going to be on everyone about it, but after a while no one will really care about it,” she predicts, and she isn’t pulling this theory out of nowhere. A lot of new rules that the ORR school system has enacted over the years have had the same life cycle. They are enforced dutifully for the first few weeks of the school year, and then as the year goes on, and more and more infractions come up, the school gets more lenient about the rule, and eventually it fizzles out.
I asked several students whether they planned to abide by the rule, and 60 percent said that they plan to do so, which means that 40 percent said they are not planning to follow the rule.
“… I will be following the policy even though it will be hard. All summer I was on my phone, so I will probably have the urge to go on my phone, but once I remember the consequences I probably won’t have such a big urge to go on it anymore,” says an anonymous source.
Said consequences include the first offense, upon which you will be sent to Vice-Principal J. Parker’s office to give him your device, which you may retrieve at the end of the day. You will also have to serve a detention. The second offense results in the same consequences. The third offense is more severe, resulting in a parent being notified, the device not being allowed in school for the remainder of the year, and the third and every offense after that will be considered a Category Two offense – including, but not limited to, suspension from school for up to five days, loss of student privileges, restitution or restoration of damage, parent conferences, Saturday school detention, and notification to Superintendent of Schools Douglas R. White Jr. about the situation.
Will this be enough to deter all students from breaking the rule? The only way we will see whether this rule will stick or fade away is to wait it out.
By Emma Cadieux
The rules and consequences sound reasonable. Cell phone are a major distraction to students and today’s young people are growing up addicted to the screen. There is no reason, except an absolute emergency, that cell phone use should have been allowed in school in the first place. Children never like rules that don’t allow them to do what they want even if it’s for their own good. A student’s focus is not on his or her studies if a cell phone is being used. Not to mention, a lot of bullying takes place on these devices and on social media. Cellphones are a distraction and any sensible parent should see that and support these rules. Parents have to stop being their kids friends and start doing what is best for them. Getting the most out of their high school education, not messaging friends or watching social media, is going to help students become successful in life. The adults; parents and teachers, have a duty to set limits in their children’s best interest. Too many parents of today rather fight for their child’s desires and bully a teacher to give her child his or her own way than have a serious talk with them on why rules exist and the consequences of their actions. I have a lot less respect for my local school district’s administration after reading that they allowed cell phone use in school in the first place. I want to send my child to school to learn, not feed an addiction to a screen. Our tax money pays for kids to learn, not do something they can do sitting on the couch at home or on a park bench.
Yes, better to have an idiot blanket policy that requires no thought than to allow a student to use an “electronic device” to consult Wikipedia. Throw the baby out with the bath, and keep that head in the sand! Sure, they can be distractions, but since when did a ban on anything teach anyone how to use something responsibly? Limits are fine, but bans are the refuge of lazy staff who just don’t want to have deal with it.
You don’t teach responsibility by just blanket banning anything.