Christine Start, 18, is not a drug dealer. But because she wanted to carry her cell phone to school, the former high school student body president was treated like one by California state laws.
California, like a handful of other states, passed legislation in the late '80s banning pagers, cell phones and other personal communication devices in an effort to curb drug dealing in schools. More than a decade later, those rules are still on the books, threatening students like Start with a possible suspension if she so much as uses her cell to arrange a ride after school.
"It bugs every student at (my school)," said Start.
Fueled by this aggravation, Start and several of her James Logan High School classmates started an initiative last year to repeal California's cell-phone ban. They worked with a state senator to draft and introduce a bill putting the jurisdiction over cell-phone policy with individual school districts, most of which were expected to allow a limited use of phones.
If Senate Bill 1253, which has passed both the Assembly and Senate, is signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis, California will join states such as Kentucky, Illinois and Maryland in reversing laws that did not keep pace with social and technological trends.
In setting up new rules, most school districts in these states favor a policy stating that cell phones can be carried, but must be turned off and not used during class time or on school buses. Some districts also require that phones and other devices be "out of sight." Punishment for those caught using cell phones inappropriately is typically confiscation, often coupled with a parent conference.
School administrators say the new rules mostly acknowledge what has already become the status quo. "Kids carry cell phones to school because parents want them to, and (the law) is almost impossible to enforce," said Ruth McKenna, the superintendent of the California school district where James Logan is located.
"In essence, it's what students have been doing all (along)," said Denise Martin, an assistant superintendent in the Evanston, Illinois, THSD 202 school district. She estimates that one in four high school students has already been carrying a phone to class, even though new cell-phone laws do not go into effect until the upcoming school year.
Even if the new laws do not change much, administrators point out that repealing cell-phone bans makes this behavior legal and frees principals from the awkward position of having to defy, or only selectively enforce, a state law. Start said her principal encouraged her to work on lifting the California ban because he hated that predicament.
Pat O'Neill, a school board member in Montgomery County, Maryland, noted that in her state the old laws stipulated an automatic 10-day suspension for any student caught carrying a cell phone on school grounds, including evening events like dances and football games. In one instance she said a female honor student got suspended for 10 days when she left her purse in the school cafeteria and school officials found a cell phone while looking inside for identification.
O'Neill said some principals followed the letter of the law, some followed a "don't ask, don't tell" policy and some swayed back and forth, meaning that the legislation was "unevenly and unfairly enforced."
Finding an acceptable set of rules governing digital devices in schools will most likely be an increasingly important challenge, as teens are the fastest growing segment in the cell-phone market, according to the Technology Student Association.
Yankee Group analyst Linda Barrabee said teens are an attractive market to cell-phone companies because they are comfortable with new technology and they control a large amount of disposable income. She further noted that teens are unafraid to try new services, and carriers are likely to sell them on advanced features such as text messaging, mobile games and music and entertainment services. "They're early adopters," she said.
Administrators acknowledge that as digital devices become more advanced and plentiful, there is more and more potential for them to be used inappropriately -- for entertainment or to cheat on tests. In general, they say they will just have to wait and see if new or stricter rules are needed. "It will be determined by if we see something (i.e. undesirable behavior)," said Denise Martin.
Martin is optimistic, however, that most students will be responsible in their use of personal gadgets, saying, "I think 99.9 percent of kids are going to be ethical."
