School addresses cell phone policy
By Angela Greiner Community Reporter

Between classes, Hudson High School student Julio Garcia sends a text message to a friend. PHOTO/CAROL HARRIS

Hudson - Cell phones have become as important to teenagers as sleep, designer jeans and pizza. The thought of going to school without the devices that keep them in constant connection with friends and family is an unfathomable.

For teachers, however, cell phones have become a chronic problem, with the beeps of incoming text messages and the array of ring tones from the stream of "emergency" calls interrupting class.

In addition, administrators face concerns about students using cell phones to cheat on tests and to take inappropriate pictures, which has made school districts start addressing existing cell phone policies.

Hudson High School Principal John Staplefeld is one of the administrators concerned about updating his school's cell phone policy, which he called "archaic and in need of updating."

Because Hudson High School is included in the First Amendment School project and has a student governance policy, Staplefeld said that before any changes could be made, he needed to get input from students. To do that, he organized a school-wide forum, held Feb. 6, to discuss what students think about the use of electrical gadgets and cell phones at school.

The event was held during the students' special interest "clustering period," a weekly event that breaks the students into subsets according to professional and social interests as a means of developing a small school environment within a large school. During the forum, students were divided into small groups, which allowed an opportunity to hear all of the students' opinions.

"In a large group, it is the biggest voice that gets heard, and seldom do the views of the minority or the quiet," Staplefeld said.

Students were encouraged to discuss diff erent opinions through faculty- and studentled discussions and debates.

"This is an event that promotes the cornerstone value of both clustering and school governance, which is to give students a bigger voice in school," Staplefeld said.

The only goal that Staplefeld requested for the event was for students to generate three ideas about policy change. The result was 15 pages' worth of student responses.

According to Staplefeld, the student feedback was very diverse. The results ranged in opinion from an all-out ban of cell phones and iPods on school property to complete freedom of use.

Concerns brought up on both sides of the spectrum addressed issues from needing phones in case of emergency and the issue that students could use phones to cheat on tests.

Other concerns that were raised included the consequences of cell phone use during school on Saturday and having phones confiscated for the day, which many of the students felt was too harsh.

Staplefeld said he is looking for a moderate policy. Policy changes will be written during the summer vacation and will be in eff ect for September. He believes that the process has been educational.

"Allowing students to have an opportunity to speak around issues helps students become better at communicating and lets other students' voices be heard," Staplefeld said.