Smoking in the boy's room -- or getting away with playing hooky -- has just gotten harder in seven Chicago public schools.
Sprint PCS just joined up with the Scholl Partners Program of the Chicago Public Schools to arm teachers in these seven schools with a new weapon against truancy -- the PCS phone.
When Lawrence is absent from English for a suspicious third time that week, the teacher can call his home right then and there and talk to his parents or guardian to put some heat on the kid.
Giving the teachers wireless phones minimizes the length of class interruption to make the needed calls. "A teacher in front of a classroom has a teachable moment and a reachable moment," said Dr. Essie Lucas, principal of Tilden High School, one of the seven chosen schools. "This way, those moments are not compromised. She or he can accomplish both."
The schools were chosen because they each had significant attendance problems. Tilden High's has greatly improved -- attendance was about 64 percent four years ago, and now it's about 82 percent -- but the goal for all of the schools is to reach at least 90 percent.
So Sprint, as part of a program started in 1993 by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to establish ties between local businesses and schools, is giving each school 25 to 30 phones apiece -- one for each freshman and sophomore homeroom teacher. Freshmen and sophomores, perhaps a little freaked out by the rigors of adjusting to high school, are usually the most truant.
Each phone will be programmed with the names and numbers of all the students in the class, and will come with 300 free minutes of Sprint PCS time per month. If teachers need more minutes, Sprint PCS will consider giving them more, said Rus Zitny, Sprint PCS area vice president.
"This is a pilot program; we want to see how it works and then we will consider expanding it into more schools," Zitny said.
But is one more phone call likely to make a difference to a kid who's perpetually truant?
"Of course, the attitude and response of the parent will be the ultimate factor," said Patrick O'Connor, chairman of the City of Chicago Education Committee. "But if we can add one more layer of alert to parents and teachers, in addition to the office of attendance whose job this has mostly been, it's got to help, too."
