Acadiana High administrators are cracking down on cell phone usage at school.
The school system’s policy outlaws the use of the phones during the school day, but students are disregarding the policy, said Assistant Superintendent Joe Craig.
In particular, a lot of students are using ear buds to listen to music on their phones, he said. That’s against the rules, so if a teacher or administrator sees it, the ear buds will be confiscated. They phone their connected to – via wires or wirelessly – also may be confiscated, Craig said.
A post on Acadiana High’s Facebook this morning laid down the gauntlet:
Here’s a link to the current LPSS Student Handbook.
In that document, it states that “Use (Visual or audible) of pager/cellular telephones (texting, talking, recording, taking/looking at pictures, or used as a music device) or other communication devices during the school day.”
Consequences start with detention and go up to a 10-day suspension. When a cell phone is confiscated, a parent must come to school to pick it up, the rules say.
Here’s the full text of the school system’s cell phone policy:
STUDENT USE OF ELECTRONIC TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICES
The Lafayette Parish School Board is dedicated to providing a healthy educational environment to public school students. The School Board recognizes that the use of cellular telephones, with their rapidly developing technological advances, which now include text messaging, photography, and other features, can impair the validity of classroom assessments, violate student privacy, possibly detonate explosive devices, hamper the efforts of administrators charged with maintaining a safe and productive school environment, and severely disrupt the educational process.
No student, unless authorized by the school principal or his/her designee, shall use or operate any cellular telephone or other electronic telecommunication device, including but not limited to, any facsimile system, radio paging service, mobile telephone service, intercom, electro-mechanical paging system, cameras, video tape recorders, MP3 players, etc., in any public elementary or secondary school building or on the grounds thereof, or on a school bus, during the regular academic day.
Unless authorized by the school principal or his/her designee, any cellular telephones and/or other electronic telecommunication device in use or operation during the regular academic day shall be confiscated by a faculty or staff member at the time of the infraction. A student’s refusal to relinquish the device shall result in the student being recommended for expulsion. The confiscated device will be held in the principal’s office, and the student’s parents or guardian will be contacted. Parents will be allowed to retrieve the device before, or at the end of the regular academic day. When a student’s device is confiscated pursuant to this policy, he/she will be disciplined in accordance with the Lafayette Parish School System’s Student/Parent Handbook.
A properly authorized medical device worn by a student shall not be considered a violation of this policy.
Nothing in this policy shall prohibit the use or operation by any person, including students, of any cellular telephone or other electronic telecommunication device in the event of an emergency.
As used in this policy, the terms below shall be defined as follows:
An emergency means an actual or imminent threat to public health or safety which may result in loss of life, injury, or property damage.
Use or operation of a cellular telephone or other electronic telecommunication device means the device is being held by a student, or is turned on, makes an audible sound, or is in a mode capable of receiving or transmitting signals.
The regular academic day shall begin at the time students arrive on campus prior to the take-in bell and conclude upon the dismissal bell at the end of the day.
