Well done, Learning Gate Community School. Adults acting like adults.
At LGCS, cell phones have been banned on campus. Students must either leave them at home or at the front office.
Appealing to reason or just rules – given the ubiquity of cell phones in the culture – hadn’t worked. Text-messaging and calls during class were incompatible with a serious learning environment. And it wasn’t just adolescents being envelope-pushing adolescents. Too often it was their parents on the sending end of those less-than-emergency calls.
And, of course, the ban pre-empts “sexting” at school, which speaks volumes about the challenging times we live in – and a whole separate, disturbing topic.
LGCS did what every other county school should also do.
Currently, Florida law permits students to carry cell phones – with the proviso that local school boards can regulate their use. As a result, Hillsborough County schools have adopted a “see and hear no evil” policy: Students generally can carry them, but they must be turned off and out of sight.
As if.
To no one’s surprise, students see such a half measure — bring it, but resist the temptation to use it — for what it is. An obligatory, token attempt by out-of-touch adults to rain on their cell phone rite of passage. As a result, when they bring them — it’s hardly for non-use during school.
And, no, we don’t need to keep over-reacting to Columbine. We can all agree that cell phones during a lock-down with killers on the loose would be helpful. But let’s not countenance the travesty of ongoing, academics-undermining intrusions premised on the unlikely possibility of a Columbine sequel.
(Meaningful, pro-active measures – from bullying and dress-code guidelines to more responsible monitoring of at-risk adolescents with unconscionable access to weaponry – should be the focus on that issue.)
Frankly, it would also help if more parents would complement the efforts of schools by focusing more on cell phones — and their use and misuse – than cell towers.