Dick Heidt - City Magazine

dents are quite cooperative.” He explained that students may
bring phones to school, but must wait until they are out of the
building to use them.
“I like to teach students to use cell phones respectfully,”
said Sue Skalicky, journalism and English instructor at Century
High School. She believes there is an exception to every
rule.
When her sophomores were preparing for a literature unit
that required parental permission, Skalicky allowed students
who had forgotten to return permission slips to phone parents
from the classroom. She also told of a student whose grandmother
was dying and wanted to be able to take calls from his
family.
Alecia Smith, sophomore at Century High, supports the
cell phone policy at her school. “Some teachers require students
to turn off their phones while in class, which is only fair
considering it’s the teacher’s time for teaching. Others are fine
with phones turned to silent or vibrate,” Smith said.
Schools nationwide have experienced a myriad of problems
with cell phones, the most serious being cheating. Students are
able to text tests, quizzes and/or answers to friends. They have
also recorded teachers and later used the material to get the
teacher in trouble with parents or administrators. Cell phones
can also be used to arrange drug deals or even plot a bomb
threat. On the positive side, students can take pictures of class
projects to e-mail to parents and text message missed assignments
to absent classmates.
Blessing or curse, one thing is certain. Cell phones are but
one small part of the rapidly expanding world of technology.
And they are here to stay.
April 2009 29