Schools are looking to purchase cell phone signal jammers. The misuse of cell phones during class is causing the teachers to fight back. Not only is it a huge distraction during class while teachers are trying to actually teach, but there is also concern that cheating is more prevalent with the ongoing texting.
Check Your Cell Phones at the Door
In Des Moines, Iowa, one school board member was quoted by the Des Moines Record. “I don’t think they have a place in the educational environment. The educational environment is supposed to be about students learning and teachers teaching and teachers can’t teach over a cell phone. If a student is busy on the cell phone they aren’t learning. It’s a distraction … and we need to minimize the distraction.”
What is the solution? With the FCC controlling signal jammers as well as signal boosters, and the law limiting signal jammers to use only by federal authorities, schools don’t have much of a chance to fight back that way. (See my blog Can your cell phone be jammed?)
One reader responded to the article in the Des Moines Register with an amusing suggestion to the problem. “Oh, For Crying-out-load. Just hang one of those shoe organizers next to the door and require each student to check in their phones on entering the classroom, then they can retrieve them after class. Just drop your phone in your slot and pick it up on the way out. Hey look, I solved the problem for less than $5.”
Cell phone abuse in schools will continue to be a problem. Should schools be able to jam the signals? Should a zero tolerance policy be in place and then confiscate the phones? The civil rights fighters will no doubt have a hay day with this issue.
[...] school authorities are faced with banning cell phones completely in the classroom. (See my blog “Check Your Cell Phones at the Door.”) Obviously this is a universal problem and not just restricted to the [...]