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Under Education Code Section 48901.5, the school is authorized to regulate possession or use of cell phones by students who are on campus, who attend school- sponsored activities, or who are under the supervision and control of school District employees. Cell phones may be brought to school unless the student loses the privilege of bringing a phone to school.

A student who brings a cell phone to school is responsible for ensuring that the cell phone does not disrupt class or any school function. Cell phones must be turned off during the school day and at all school functions and kept out of sight during all class time and testing time except when being used for a valid instructional or other schoolrelated purpose as determined by the teacher or other District employee. Students may not telephone, text or otherwise use cell phones during the school day.

If a phone rings or vibrates during class or other school activity (including while riding a school bus), the teacher or other staff will determine consequences which may include asking the student to hand over the phone turning it into the school office. If a disruption occurs, the employee may direct the student to turn off the device and/or confiscate the device until the end of the activity, class period, or school day. The school office staff will keep the cell phone until the parent comes to school to pick up the cell phone.

A student is prohibited from using the cell phone’s camera and/or video functions except when being used for a valid instructional or other schoolrelated purpose as determined by the teacher or other District employee, while on campus, while at a school activity, or while under the supervision of school staff whether on or off campus.

Cell phones must not be used for bullying, harassing, threatening, or teasing of students or school staff. Cell phones must not be used to send threats and must not contain photos that are sexually explicit, photos of nude or partly nude people, photos of undergarments, photos of illegal activities, or photos of unlawful acts, drugs or drug paraphernalia.

If a student brings a cell phone to school, the school reserves the right to search the cell phone and review photos, videos, voicemail messages, text messages, and any other capabilities when there is reasonable suspicion and/or when the law otherwise allows. By signing the Acceptable Use Agreement policy, student and parents are providing specific consent to any and all District employees to search or otherwise access and review electronic device information by means of physical interaction or electronic communication with any electronic device used or possessed by Student, whether the device is owned by the Student, Parent, District, or anyone else, if Student uses or possesses the device at school or a school activity, on the way to and from school or a School activity, or otherwise related to school activity or attendance, and with any electronic device owned by Student or Parent if reported lost or stolen. If a parent objects to the school viewing items on the phone or listening to or reading messages, then the parent shall not allow the child to bring a cell phone to school.

The school may also share the cell phone with police when legally authorized.

If a student whose cell phone has disrupted the school refuses to turn their cell phone over to staff immediately when requested or if a student uses a cell phone in a manner that violates this handbook or other school rules, the student will be disciplined for disruption and/or willful defiance, up to and including suspension when legally authorized, and the student may be prohibited from bringing a cell phone to school or school activities.

The school is not responsible for any lost or stolen phones, even if the student has turned the phone over to staff.

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Should students be able to use cell phones during school breaks?

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Security and educational use are giving school administrators reason to allow cellphones at school

Cellphones are also creating concern over misuse and access inequities

While many schools still ban phones%2C the number of schools allowing them is quickly rising

At a school district outside Chicago, students participated in a French class by using cellphones to call classmates and speak with them in French.

And when school starts this fall at Mason High School near Cincinnati, students like Mrudu Datla will pack iPads and iPhones in their backpacks.

"(Using technology in everyday life is) not that new to us because we grew up with technology," Datla, a sophomore, said.

Although schools have traditionally banned or limited cellphones in the classroom, 73% of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers said their students use phones in the classroom or to complete assignments, according to a Pew Research Center study released in February.

"Teachers are starting to take advantage of the opportunities of cellphones in the classroom," said George Fornero, superintendent of Township High School District 113, located outside Chicago, whose school system has begun allowing its students use cellphones.

Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said this trend first emerged after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"The issue of security and red alerts on terrorism threats became an issue, and school systems began to relax the prohibition on cellphones in schools," he said.

Though many of these changing policies banned cellphone use except in emergencies, teachers are lifting the bans and incorporating phones into their curriculum.

Natalie Milman, a George Washington University education technology professor, said that although security was one factor, others were involved.

"As a parent, I can see parents pushing for it when you think of the shootings that happen," she said. "However, with youth, (having a phone) is a very natural part of their ecosystem. It doesn't make sense to close that opportunity for them when they go to school."

She said parents and teachers are realizing educational value of mobile phones, as new features have made these devices relevant to education. "Most people are now coming to school with a computer in their pocket," Domenech said.

During the past few years, some schools, such as Mason High, have implemented "bring your own tech" programs, allowing students to use their devices for schoolwork.

With mobile apps and the Internet at their fingertips, teachers and students are now using phones as clickers to answer questions, providing feedback on student progress, and also to document labs, collaborate on group projects and capture teachers' notes, Milman said.

However, mobile devices have also created concerns.

"(Mobile devices) promote a certain kind of learning ... it's limited," Milman said. "It can be overused and used in ways that aren't educationally meaningful." For this reason, she said, it's important teachers to receive proper training.

Their use has also created worries about cheating, visiting inappropriate websites, sexting or overuse. Policies banning phones were in place to counter these problems, but Fornero said no-tolerance policies were difficult to enforce and distracted administrators from tackling larger issues.

"The kids taught us a lesson: They're still going to bring their phones anyway, so let's allow them to use them in a constructive way," he said.

Bringing cellphones into the classroom raises questions about students who don't own personal devices and schools without necessary infrastructure. Milman said a lot of inequities exist, favoring more affluent, suburban communities.

But Domenech said during his visits to schools around the country - even at schools in poorer areas - he saw that most students owned a mobile device. So far, BYOT programs have been schools' temporary solution, with most students owning mobile devices, to circumvent the digital divide.

Funding has been available for educational training, Milman said, but money for the necessary infrastructure - Wi-Fi access and technical support - has been harder to come by. Fornero said his school system received only local funding for improving its infrastructure.

However, according to Richard Culatta, director of the U.S. Dept. of Education's Office of Educational Technology, the federal government is looking to close that large divide. About 80% of schools in the country don't have the infrastructure to support digital learning, according to government data.

"That's hugely problematic as we look at engaging with fantastic digital resources for learning that are available," he said.

President Obama announced the ConnectED initiative on June 6, which aims to connect 99% of schools around the country to broadband Internet, and the Department of Education is working to prepare teachers to use technology.

While Domenech estimated only 25% of schools now allow phones, he expects that to increase significantly over the next few years. Milman said to address schools' concerns, administrators should establish clear policies with parents and students and consequences for violating them.

"There are schools around the world who are already using these," Milman said. "I think the schools that are not quite there should look to those schools and learn from them."

Contributing: Michael D. Clark, The Cincinnati Enquirer

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More schools use cellphones as learning tools

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Security and educational use are giving school administrators reason to allow cellphones at school Cellphones are also creating concern over misuse and access inequities While many schools still ban phones%2C the number of schools allowing them is quickly rising At a school district outside Chicago, students participated in a French class by using cellphones to call classmates and speak with them in French.

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How Banning Cell Phones at School Affects Your Kids' Test Score

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Exam scores climbed by as much as 6% in schools that imposed strict bans on cell phones, according to a new study that cautions policymakers to not overturn strict cell phone policies in the classroom.

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Pros and Cons of cell phone use in school

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Pros and Cons of cell phone use in school

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A recent Los Angeles Times' article reveals that teachers across America must compete with students' phones for attention. Matt Miles, a high school teacher from Fairfax County, Virginia, says the problem is getting worse: "Whereas 5 years ago, I could quietly ask the one rebellious student to put his or her phone away with no real interruption to class, doing that today would require multiple conversations with a majority of my class."

The push for students to use phones while at school, and even during class, comes from this generation of preteens and teens who -- as illustrated by the recent documentary Screenagers -- struggle to stop playing with their phones. Adding fuel to the fire are tech pundits who claim that smartphones provide learning opportunities for children. Parents, too, may want to communicate by phone with their kids throughout the school day.

But new research is questioning the wisdom of allowing phones in school, as studies reveal this practice is putting students' learning and safety at risk.
Distracted Learning
There's no doubt that smartphones have remarkable capabilities which, in theory, could promote student learning. But the truth is that kids -- in spite of the best efforts of parents and teachers -- use their phones primarily to access digital amusements. A Kaiser Family Foundation report says: "The transformation of the cell phone into a media content delivery platform [has]... facilitated an explosion in [entertainment] media consumption among American youth," including TV and video games.

It's therefore not surprising that a recent London School of Economics study found that schools which ban the use of phones experienced a substantial improvement in student test scores, with the researchers concluding that phones "can have a negative impact on productivity through distraction." Researchers found that phones hurt vulnerable students the most. Study co-author Dr. Richard Murphy, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas, reports: "Allowing phones into schools would be the most damaging to low-achieving and low-income students, exacerbating any existing learning inequalities."

Research on college students (average age 18) in a simulated classroom reveals how phones hurt learning, as students who did not use their phones "wrote down 62 percent more information in their notes, took more detailed notes, were able to recall more detailed information from the lecture, and scored a full letter grade and a half higher on a multiple choice test than those students who were actively using their mobile phones."
The Illusion of Safety
Understandably, some may believe that children's safety is improved if parents and children can reach one another by phone during the school day. However, in order to get a message from their parents, students must constantly monitor their phones, even during class. This constant phone and online use is now recognized as posing risks for children. Why? Because research is revealing that kids who spend more time online are more likely to be involved in cyberbullying than kids who spend less.

Schools therefore inadvertently increase the chances that kids will be cyberbullied at school through open phone policies. Marc Vincenti, a retired English teacher from Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, witnessed how students using phones during school increases their risks of being victimized. Vincenti asked one of his students, who appeared troubled, if she was okay. She responded, "I'm so sorry, but on my way to your class I got a text six pages long from my boyfriend's old girlfriend saying what a slut I am."

We should be doing everything we can to limit cyberbullying, especially during school hours, as research shows that it increases the danger that kids will skip school or consider suicide. Schools will protect students' safety by having them keep their phones off in backpacks from morning bell to last. If parents or children need to reach one another, the school office can be used -- a policy that has worked well for decades.
The Need for Leadership
Schools will clearly promote their students' academic success and safety by limiting the use of student phones during school hours. Presently, most schools leave it to teachers to manage phone distractions in their own classrooms. But this piecemeal approach has left teachers with inadequate support to confront the difficult and potentially unsafe task of limiting disruptive phone use by defiant students. In a recent New York Times' article, teacher Ed Boland acknowledges, "I just wish somebody told me how to get a cellphone out of a kid's hand."

School leaders and teachers therefore need to work together to help students and parents recognize the substantial benefits of keeping phones off during school. Such teacher-leader cooperation will also ensure that phone limits extend to lunch and passing periods to protect students.

Principal Anita Berger of Banneker High School, a Washington, DC magnet school, is providing strong leadership on student phones, particularly considering the challenges faced by her students. Banneker's student body is 85 percent black, a group of teens who -- according to a recent Common Sense Media report -- nationally spend almost twice the amount of time each day using phones when compared with white children (4 hours, 11 minutes to 2 hours, 12 minutes). Black students also tend to score lower academically than white children. So, Banneker's students would especially benefit from school phone limits which, according to the London School of Economics phone study, particularly help lower achieving students.

Principal Berger and Banneker have done just that, with a rule that students don't use phones during the school day. This has helped Banneker students excel, as the school ranks in the top 2 percent on The Washington Post's list of America's most challenging high schools, and nearly 100 percent of its graduates are accepted into post-secondary institutions. "Although we know there are many benefits to mobile technology," Berger says, "the distractions outweigh the benefits."

Banneker's phone limits also promote a supportive and engaging school community. "We do not have social media drama, and students actually interact with one another during lunch," Principal Berger adds. Schools across America can learn a lot from Banneker.

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A recent Los Angeles Times' article reveals that teachers across America must compete with students' phones for attention. Matt Miles, a high school teacher from Fairfax County, Virginia, says the problem is getting worse: "Whereas 5 years ago, I could quietly ask the one rebellious student to put his or her phone away with no real interruption to class, doing that today would require multiple conversations with a majority of my class."