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 =Cell phone rule causes controversy = By Christina Stoltz Staff Writer

The new cell phone rule has been put into place to stop distractions in the classroom so that students will pay more attention to what the teacher is saying. With the addition that parents would have to come to the school to retrieve their child’s phone, the parent might also punish their child. Mr. Roland said, “I see no need for cell phones during school hours.”

Students do not agree; they do not like the new rule and do not see the purpose of putting such strict rules against texting, especially in study hall when they have nothing else to do. “I don’t see the point in trying to make the rule stricter because people are still going to do it anyways, so they’ll just get in more trouble than before. That is not going to stop them. A lot of students will just have an insane amount of detentions,” said Senior Ashley Chronister.

Other students have concern for their teachers or principals looking through the phone once it has been taken off of them. Students do not need to worry about that though because teachers and principals will not look through the phone unless they have a good reason for doing so, like suspicion of threats or bullying. If students still have concerns about their teachers looking through their phone, they could simply take out the battery then hand it to the teacher.

“School officials cannot search a cell phone that they confiscate from a student unless they have a reasonable suspicion that the contents of the phone violate a law or a school rule. So, for example, if a teacher confiscates a student's cell phone because it rings in class, the teacher would not be allowed to search the cell phone. On the other hand, if students are sending text messages to each other to cheat on a test, school officials could confiscate the phones and then search them to see if they contain messages that would show the students were cheating” replied Staff Attorney Sara Rose from the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) of Pennsylvania. If the student refuses to give their cell phone to the teacher, then the punishment will be suspension and that is extreme just to keep your cell phone for the rest of the day. The full punishments and details on this new rule is on page thirty of the school planner, so students have been warned about the consequences. At least this rule is not as bad as some of the other schools policies’ on cell phones. At least students are allowed to use your cell phone if a teacher says that you can, in some schools the students can’t even do that.